Art Appreciation
by FireThatFox
Summary: A love triangle with deadly results. An engagement since childhood, misunderstandings, and sexually weak Sasuke, obsessive Sasori, Uchiha hidden agenda. Mind over matter doesn't matter if you have control. trigger alerts
1. Chapter 1

The pounding on her door the next morning as she drank her coffee had her walking warily to her front door.

She opened and peeked around it at a figure in orange. "Naruto?" She gawked at him. "What are you doing here?" She asked

"I told my dad you didn't have a car and had to walk to campus, since I'm dropping him off at work I asked if we could pick you up on the way in. I'm taking his car for the weekend, mine is in the shop. I was going to come back later and pick you up for dinner maybe before I go back?" He said as Sasuke came into view.

"Hey Sasuke! Did you spend the night with Sakura?" Naruto's mouth hung open staring at them.

"It wasn't like that idiot, we talked after he drove me home last night and it was late so he stayed, no biggie. I'm actually going to be in town this weekend, Mikoto asked me to dinner Friday." She smiled at Naruto's happy expression. "Let me grab my backpack I'll be right out."

She shut her front door turning to Sasuke, Naruto and his dad are going to give me a ride to class Sasuke, make sure to lock the door if you go out?" She handed him a spare key.

"I can drive you to class Sakura." Sasuke took the spare key and was putting it on his keyring.

"Naruto and his dad are already here, I don't want to be rude." She was already at the front door. "I should be back in about 5 hours, then we can go back to Konoha together." She waved goodbye to him and walked out the door.

Sasuke went to Sakura's apartment window and saw her running down her steps and get into a dark blue car. Naruto was in the back seat having switched to give Sakura shotgun. He watched as Naruto's dad watched Sakura settle into the passenger seat next to him.

Sakura sat in Naruto's dad's car her backpack at her feet as Naruto began questioning her.

"Sakura why did Sasuke spend the night with you?" Naruto was asking loudly from the back seat, again.

"I told you, he came up with me after he drove me home last night and we were talking about old times and it got late. I didn't want him to drive home tired so I told him to spend the night, besides, I'm going to be in Konoha for dinner tonight with his family, he is going to drive me after my last class." She said calmly.

"Are you two back together? You mean you would go back with him after he tried to." Naruto paused as if remembering that they were in the car with his dad.

"Shut up Naruto!" She glanced over at Minato and quickly looked away.

"Everything okay Sakura?" Minato asked her a small look of concern in his blue eyes.

"Fine. Fine, it happened a long time ago. Nothing happened, it's fine." She huffed at herself, why couldn't she have answered that better.

"What happened?" Minato asked her.

"I don't feel comfortable talking about it." She said.

Naruto and his dad exchanged glances. "It's nothing dad, don't worry about it." Naruto says after an awkward minute.

They pulled into a spot on the side of the student parking lot and they got out of the car. Naruto hugged Sakura and got in the driver's seat telling his dad he would be back later to pick him up.

Minato and Sakura waved as he drove away. It was a little awkward. She had eaten dinner with her Psych teacher and had just gotten out of his car with him the next morning. Warranted she was best friends with his son and he had known her almost all her life but...still.

"We should probably get to class." She looked at Minato who stood there watching her with an odd expression on his face.

"I know I'm you teacher but I can also be your friend." He smiled at her in what he hoped was a reassuring way.

"Sure thing Mr. Namikaze." she brushed past him into the building and he followed. She wasn't going to tell him anything, stupid Naruto.

The class was normal and wasn't too uncomfortable for her. Naruto's father seemed to forget their conversation and taught his lesson with his usual calm intelligence. Once in a while, she could feel him looking at her but he would look away whenever she would look up at him.

She hurried out of class when he dismissed them and ran to the art building for her next class.

Minato frowned as he watched her run out of class as soon as he had dismissed it. He picked up his briefcase and walked out to his favorite chair by the art building under the tree and sat down to enjoy the gentle breeze till his next class.

To his surprise, he saw Sakura walk out of the art building and lean against the railing of the stairs soon after entering and pull out her cell phone. Had her class been canceled? She made her call and then sat down on the steps presumably waiting for something. He was just about to rise from his seat to go talk to her when a red headed boy approached her. She tensed up a bit but smiled at the boy nevertheless and they made small talk till a black car pulled up in front of Sakura ten minutes later.

The tinted window rolled down to reveal Sasuke waving to Sakura and giving the redhead a glare. Sakura got up and excused herself with an apology and got into Sasuke's expensive black car and they drove away. Whatever rift had happened, and he still didn't fully understand what had happened, apparently, it was mended. She really did seem at ease around the Uchiha and genuinely happy to see him.

Minato noticed the redheaded boy still standing by the curb watching the black car drive away. He took out a sketch pad and pencil and wrote something down, turned and walked back into the art building. Strange, thought Minato, what did he write down. Minato looked at his watch, time for his next class. He got up and walked back into the Psych building, his briefcase in his left hand.

"Who was that guy you were talking to when I pulled up?" Sasuke asked her as they drove back to her apartment to get her things before the drive to Konoha.

"Oh that was Akasuna no Sasori, he is in my art class. Since our class was canceled he wanted to know if I wanted to grab a cup of coffee together but I told him you were already on your way to get me."

"If I hadn't been on my way to get you, would you have said yes to his date?" Sasuke asked, he really wanted to know.

"It wasn't a date. We sit next to one another in class, he is just a class friend type person. He is an amazing artist, I admire him." She smiled.

"Sounds like he was asking you out on a date. What kinda name is Akusuna no Sasori, it sounds very formal...and familiar. Sasori of the Red Sand...I know I have heard that somewhere before." Sasuke frowns. "Dokuhebi, is his father's name Dokuhebi?" He asks her.

"I have no idea, really we don't really talk that much. That is the first time he has talked to me outside of class."

"Akasuna no Dokuhebi," Sasuke mutters to himself.

"Viper snake of the red sand?" Sakura translates.

"Yeah, he was a notorious international criminal in my Uncle Madara's day, before my Uncle retired. It was actually his capture that allowed my Uncle to retire. He is in a prison cell wasting away somewhere in Suna. I wonder if that kid is his son, the red hair…" Sasuke is muttering to himself again.

"I have no idea like I said he doesn't talk too much." Sakura shrugged and got out of the car as soon as it stopped in front of her apartment.

Sasuke sent a text to his father as he waited patiently for her to get her things. It didn't take her long and they were back out the door on their way to Konoha. It was one of the things he found most attractive about her. She was never whiny or girly, taking forever to get ready or asking if she looked fat.

The ride back to Konoha was nice. Sasuke wasn't big on talking but he found he talked more when he was around Sakura, she was always so enthusiastic and bubbly, but not in the "I want to punch myself in the face" way Naruto is.

They pulled up to the Main house around 2 pm that Friday afternoon. Fugaku was still at the precinct but it looked like his mom and Itachi were home, at least their cars were.

"Itachi will be pleased to see you Sakura. He misses you too. Shisui will be by later I'm sure he knows you're coming." Sasuke grabbed her bag out of the trunk and they headed inside.

"I'm home," They both said as they walked in the door taking their shoes off putting them in little cubbies by the door.

Sakura stood for a moment just inhaling the smell of good cooking. Mikoto was the best chef in the world. Sakura didn't know if she missed her cooking or the family more.

"There's my little cherry blossom!" Mikoto rushed toward Sakura from the kitchen embracing her warmly if not tightly.

"Glad to be here Mikoto, thank you for inviting me." Sakura kissed her on the cheek and hugged her again.

"Sakura, welcome home." Itachi said from the door to the kitchen a little ways down the hall.

"Itachi." She ran and jumped into his arms making everyone but Sasuke laugh. "My hero" It was a nickname she had given him. He had always been there while they were growing up, saving her from bullies, then later on unsavory boyfriends, and even now he would drop by just to make sure all the locks on her doors and windows were safe.

"I have all your favorites dear." Mikoto was saying as she led her into the kitchen by the arm. "Tempura, sushi, Dango but you will need to fight Itachi for it, pork stuffed mushrooms…" The delectable list went on and on. Sakura was in heaven.

" I should have come for a visit months ago!" Sakura jokes.

"Well, make sure you come by more regularly from now on young lady, we all miss you terribly. And worry you don't eat enough on your own. I would really prefer it if you moved back, I mean there is no place safer for you than Konoha for heaven's sake. The whole family knows you, loves you and we are basically the police force here. No safer place on Earth for you if you ask me." Mikoto had hit her stride and there was no end in sight.

Sakura thought she might regret it later but said it anyway." I was actually thinking of moving back after this semester, I kinda miss everyone."

"Ohhhhh! That is wonderful dear! Your room is all ready for you and…"

"Mother, I am sure Sakura will want to move into her house when she moves back." Itachi interrupted her as politely as possible.

"Oh, of course, dear, silly me, but you know, you could sell it and keep the money so when you get married you can…" Sakura had started to zone out after Mikoto started talking about marriage.

"Mother, I'm sure Sakura doesn't want to get married yet, she is only 19 after all." Itachi to the rescue again.

Sakura smiled at him and he winked at her.

"Let's put your bags in your room Sakura," Sasuke said grabbing her by the arm and led her down the familiar hallways to her room. It really did look exactly the same. She smiled. It was nice that some things still never changed.

The last year has been a whirlwind of change, death, and defeat for her. She hadn't been lying when she had told Sasuke he hadn't been the only reason. Being here again though reminded her of everything she had left behind, she hadn't realized how much she missed it, them.

"Hey wanna go out to the old part of the property? I wanna see if the fort we built when we were kids is still there." She asked Sasuke after she took her clothes out and put them in her dresser.

'I think it is yeah let's go, it will be fun." He smiled at her.

They left her room and headed back to the kitchen, "Mom, Sakura and I will be out by the old lake on the old property, we'll be back later." Sasuke waves to his mom and snags two sticks of Dango one for him and one for Sakura as they leave the kitchen.

"Okay but be careful" she calls after them not noticing the missing Dango.

They pass by Itachi who is on the computer in the living room and wave, he waves back but heads to the kitchen when he notices the Dango in their hands.

They hear Mikoto yelling at Itachi to drop the Dango as they shut the back door laughing.

It was a beautiful day in September, not hot, not cold, clear skies, no rain, just beautiful and blue. Sakura enjoyed the long walk and small hike to the old property. It was called the old property because it was the oldest owned property by the family. There was the old compound back by the lake that wasn't used anymore, some old outbuildings and barns for when they used to grow their own produce as a clan.

The Uchiha clan and the Senju were co-founders of Konoha so naturally, they had the most and the oldest properties. Sakura climbed over a broken down fence with the help of Sasuke and they made their way around the back of the old compound to the forest line.

"Wasn't it over here?" She asks him pointing to the left of a really big rock.

"No it's here, I found it." Sasuke is smiling smugly as she walks over at having found it before her.

"Congratulations! You win at nothing!'' she smacks him on the back of the head.

"Hey," he grumbles. "Sore loser"

Sakura ignores him to crawl on her hands and knees into the fort.

"Get up, your pants are going to get all dirty, Sakura, mom will get mad if you track dirt all over the house, you know that." Sasuke sounds like an old woman instead of a 19-year-old guy.

"Pfft, come on pretty boy, on your knees! I don't have all day." She calls over her shoulder as she crawls farther and farther into the old fort they had made when they were 12.

Sasuke sighs and pulls two plastic bags from his pocket, somehow he had known it would come to this. He ties a plastic bag around each knee and slowly drops to the ground to crawl in after her.

She is already inside in the farthest corner by the time he reaches her and can stand up again.

"Why the hell did we make the entrance so damn small?" He complains.

"We were shorter back then? You weren't such a little prissy bitch? I don't know but would you please stop complaining? This is awesome!" She is grinning at him in the dark.

"Yeah, I can't believe it is still here and hasn't fallen down." He smiles and looks around. He hadn't been here since the last time they had been here together. It had been years.

"Hey! I wonder if ..." she runs her hand along the wall until she finds a small alcove dug into the dirt wall and pulls out a box from the makeshift shelf.

"It's still here!" She cries in excitement.

"What?" he is curious. "The bracelet your brother gave me when we were 9, well I was 9 he was what 14?"

"He gave you a bracelet?" Sasuke asked her.

"Yeah, let's go back outside I want to show you but I don't want it to get dirty." She tucks the small box in her shirt and starts to crawl back out.

She draws a little hand carved wooden box with the Uchiha symbol out from the cover of her shirt once they are back out in the open. She unclicks the latch and the box springs open to reveal a beautifully delicate cherry blossom bracelet of gold and silver links with little emeralds laid into the flowers to make leaves.

"Sakura." Sasuke is still looking at the bracelet. "That was my grandmother's. Itachi gave it to you?"

"Yeah, when we were kids." She looked confused, then her eyes grew wide. "You mean, it's real? It's real gold and those are real emeralds?"

Sasuke was frowning at the bracelet." Yeah. It's been in our family for generations. Our mother gave it to Itachi to give to his wife."

"But." She started to say as Sasuke's ears started to redden.

"Let's go back, we need to make sure we have enough time for the walk and to get cleaned up. Give me the bracelet, I'll give it back to Itachi for you." He holds his hand out for the bracelet.

Sakura hesitates.

"You do know what accepting that gift means, don't you? I mean, he probably thinks you have had it this whole time, you need to give it back, the sooner the better." Sasuke moved to take the box from her and she pulled it away.

"I will do it. I will give it back to him. You will just hurt him and make him feel stupid. I didn't realize what a gift like this meant, I don't want to hurt him. I'll give it back to him myself."

"Fine. Let's go home" He started stomping off toward the house.


	2. Chapter 2

Sasori sat at his computer looking through pictures. None of them were very interesting really. Mostly regular mundane pictures of normal life, so boring. Not was he was looking for. He was just about to tab out when a flash of pink caught his eye.

"What's this?" He murmurs to himself. He clicks on the picture to enlarge it. A sassy looking long haired blonde looks at the camera with her arm around a girl with the most expressive eyes he has ever seen.

"Beautiful." He almost smiles as he stares at the vibrant green eyes looking back at him in pixelated beauty. This is what he had been looking for.

He clicks on the blonde's link, Yamanaka Ino. He searches her friends list, there it is pink and green, Sakura Haruno.

"I found you." He smiles then and starts scrolling through her pictures.

Shisui is sitting on the couch when they walk into the house through the back door.

"Cherry blossom!" He yells and runs at her picking her up and twirling her around laughing and smiling.

"Shisui!" She kisses him on the cheek. "How is my favorite Uchiha?" She smiled up at him.

"I knew I was your favorite! Man is Obito gonna be jealous! I'm going to call him right now to tell him." Shisui pulls out his phone from his back pocket and hits a button.

"Don't you dare you little mongoose!" She laughs at him then claps her hands over her mouth when she hears Obito answer the call.

"Hey, Obito guess what? Guess who is over at the main house? Sakura! Get your ass over here! By the way, she said I was her favorite Uchiha, in your face!" Shisui hangs up. "He'll be right over."

"Shisui, you are such an ass!" She is laughing at him though.

"I've been telling him that for years but he doesn't want to believe me," Itachi said turning around from the computer smiling at Sakura.

"Oh, Itachi, can I speak with you please? Before dinner?' She smiles at him tentatively. "Uh, maybe come to my room, I need to change my pants."

Itachi's eye twitches and Shisui burst out laughing.

Sakura facepalms, "I mean! Let me change my pants but meet me in my room in 5 mins after I put pants on!" Her face is beet red as she runs out of the living room.

"Soooo, does she want you to wear pants or not, she wasn't very clear on it." Shisui laughs and Itachi walks slowly down the hallway toward Sakura's room.

Itachi knocks and she bids him enter.

He smiles at her and makes his way to her bed to sit down. She pats down her newly changed pants and throws the muddy ones in the hamper. "Itachi," she starts as she sits next to him on her bed," I um, we went out to the old fort today, you know the one Sasuke and I made when we were kids?"

He nods.

"Well, I had left the bracelet you gave me, a long time ago, I hadn't realized how valuable it was till I showed it to Sasuke today um. I have it here." She pulled the small wooden box from her shirt and handed it to him.

"Sasuke told me your mom gave it to you to give to your wife. I was 9 and you were only 14 so I'm sure it was a mistake. I wanted to give it back to you so you could give it to the woman you want to marry." She smiled and made to stand but his hand brought her back down to sit by him.

He smiled at her a little and took her hand. "I care about you. You've always been family to me."

She smiled and kissed him on the cheek, "Thanks Itachi."

She rose from the bed her hand still in his, "Let's go see if your father is home, I'm starving!"

He squeezed her hand and only let go of it when they reached the kitchen. Sasuke was watching them and seemed to relax when he saw Itachi put a small box into his shirt for safekeeping.

Shisui watched Sasuke watch Itachi then turned to Sakura and smiled grabbing her by the waist drawing her close, leaning her far over bending backward like a dancer and whispered into her ear, "Vixen, you drive us men wild." and he kissed her on the nose, twirling her around laughing.

Shisui always knew how to make her smile no matter what. She grinned at him, tapped him on the nose and went to find Mikoto to see if she needed help setting the table or anything before Fugaku got home.

Shisui turned back around to find Sasuke and Itachi glaring at him. He laughed and followed Sakura through the door.

Sakura put the last dish on the table as Fugaku walked through the door.

"Sakura dear!" He hugged her and kissed her cheek," So good you could finally make it to dinner, you must come more often my poor wife misses her only daughter."

"I promise I will, I'll be moving back next semester so you will be seeing a lot more of me soon." She patted him on the shoulder on the way back to the kitchen.

A moment later Obito arrived with Madara who both kissed and hugged her with huge smiles on their faces. Once everyone sat down and said thank you for the food Sakura poured Sasuke's tea for him. As she reached to pour Itachi's he stopped her saying he would be glad to do it and took the teapot from her.

Madara raised his eyebrow and gave Itachi a knowing look but quickly looked at the lampshade when Sakura quirked her eyebrows at him. Shisui stifled a laugh as a cough and Fugaku sneezed.

Dinner was delicious, Sakura had never eaten so much before, or since the last time, she had dinner with them. She sat on the couch complaining to Shisui someone would have to roll her to her room. When he offered, Sasuke walked by and scooped her up off the couch and walked her to her room as she fake hit him in the back grinning the whole way. Everyone laughed and made jokes as Sasuke shut the door to her room behind them.

"It's late Sakura, get some rest. Want to see the new art exhibit in the village proper tomorrow morning? I hear it is really different, it had mixed reviews, kinda makes me want to see it more."

"That sounds great! I would love to." She hugged him good night and he left her room leaving the door cracked just a little bit behind her like he used to do when they were kids. She rolled over in her bed and looked out of her window to the treeline and smiled. It was good to be home again.

She woke the next morning to a tapping on her door before Mikoto entered her room and sat on her bed.

"Morning pumpkin, I know you and Sasuke have plans to go to the museum this morning, I hadn't gotten a chance to tell him, we will be going to a private viewing with the Konoha police department and select members of the Konoha council tonight. It is the usual formal event the family goes to so I wanted to know if you wanted to go shopping for a new dress with me this morning and get our hair done together. Kind of a girls morning out? What do you say, dear?"

"That sounds like a ton of fun! Yes! I would love to go! Thank you so much" Sakura was excited, she never did girly things.

Sasuke and Itachi had expressed interest in joining them shopping but Mikoto told them to bugger off and find their own entertainment for the morning much to Sakura's amusement.

Mikoto and Sakura went to store after store, tried on dress after dress. Mikoto had found a beautiful Black and Lavender dress that was both form fittingly appropriate for her age and flowed like water over river rocks around her ankles. Sakura would not have picked the dress she got but was encouraged to do so both by the fact that Mikoto was paying for it and that Mikoto told her she looked like a princess fairy and that she had to get it.

It was short in the front, long in the back with dark green silk covered in sheer white pinching panels in the front and back falling from the waist. The bodice was made of crystal beads and white silk flowers. It was a bit too flashy for her but Mikoto said she looked like the goddess of spring with her pink hair.

Next, they went to the salon. Sakura chose a very simple updo that went well with the delicate design of her gown. Her hair was curled and swept up and tied with white and silver ribbons to trailed down her bareback. Mikoto chose a simple bun with long bangs to one side. They smiled at one another, they were ready.

The two women went home with their hair done and their dresses wrapped, to walk into chaos. The Uchiha men were a good looking bunch to be sure but very few knew what went on behind the scenes to get to such perfection. There must have been seven ties thrown over the back of the couch, Itachi had three more around his neck trying to figure out which one to wear. Sasuke had on one vest only to take it off to try on another adding the one he just took off to a pile of what could be no less than 10 vests. Fugaku was in his room no doubt making a similar mess and Shisui couldn't find his left shoe and was walking around twirling a pocket watch around his finger getting in everyone else's way.

"Stop!" Commanded the Uchiha Matriarch. Everyone froze.

"Itachi, the red tie, Sasuke the dark blue vest, and Silver tie. Shisui, your shoe is in your back pocket. Everyone out of the living room! Sakura and I need to get dressed and my husband is in our dressing room so out out out, into the kitchen, outside out out out!"

"That was awesome." Sakura clapped her hands and grinned at Mikoto.

"Years of practice my dear, you'll learn." She smiled at Sakura, " Now then, strip down and let's dress you back up!"

Mikoto handed Sakura a white down dressing cloak with green and blue iridescent feathers along the collar of the white ermine. "Wear this dear, it complements the dress, cover yourself, the lady of the house of the Uchiha never reveals her dress until she steps foot into the event. It is tradition."

"But Mikoto, you are the Lady of the House of the Uchiha." Sakura looked surprised that she would be granted this honor.

"And you are my daughter, welcome home dear, we hope you come home to stay very soon. We will step out together tonight." Mikoto patted her hand and draped the cloak over Sakura's shoulders.

It was beautiful. Sakura felt like nothing less than royalty if a bit self conscious.

Sakura road with Fugaku and Mikoto in the limousine while the others followed int heir own vehicles.

The gallery was lit up like a Christmas tree, that was what Sakura first thought when she saw it. Little sparkly lights adorned the walls to the entryway, waiters with trays of champagne milled about. Sakura craned her neck looking around trying to figure out who the artist was but couldn't see anyone who might fit her idea of an artist of this caliber.

Fugaku led Mikoto on his arm up the steps of the gallery. Itachi came to Sakura's side at the hand motion of his mother and took Sakura's arm in his and led her after his parents. They came to stand side by side on a catwalk overlooking the exhibits below and Mikoto unlatched her cloak and Sakura followed, an attendant came and gathered their cloaks, Sakura never felt more ridiculous as people oohed and ahhed over their dresses and hair. Her face was red, and she tried to hide behind Itachi's taller form but he held her arm firm preventing it.

"Come Sakura, you look absolutely stunning, do not hide, let them look." And he smiled down at her with his eyes shining. Dread began to grow in the form of a sharp pain in her side.

Their grand entrance complete they moved down the elegant stairs into the gallery to admire the art.

Sasuke found them soon after they had entered the main floor of the gallery taking her arm from Itachi and placing her arm in his instead. Itachi inclined his head to his brother and smiled, making his way over to Shisui.

"The runt is laying it on thick, isn't he? What's gotten into him?" Shisui inquired handing Itachi a glass of champagne.

"He found out I had given Sakura my grandmother's bracelet when I was 14 yesterday." He told him.

"You what?" Shisui drooled a little champagne out the side of his mouth to the amusement of two women walking by who giggled. Shisui grinned at them shamelessly and winked.

"Why the hell would you do that Itachi?" Shisui came back around to the main subject.

"I love her," Itachi said.

"She kept it all this time, so, she had it when she was dating your brother for almost three years?" He asked incredulously.

"She had left it in the fort they had made in the old Uchiha grounds by the old compound. She was nine when I gave it to her, she didn't know it was real, or what it meant." Itachi's face was noticeably blank.

"Does she know now?" Shisui asked, he couldn't help it, he really wanted to know.

"Yes," Itachi said.

"Come on, tell me what she said, what is happening, you're trying to kill me with the suspense, aren't you?" Shisui looked at his cousin with false pain in his eyes.

"I have the bracelet, she gave it back to me after Sasuke enlightened her to the meaning behind it. My mother heard her give it back to me while we were in Sakura's room, my mother was outside on her way in to collect dirty laundry and overheard us talking, Sakura doesn't love me but I love her. She looks beautiful tonight doesn't she?" Itachi's eyes followed Sakura around the room. His weren't the only ones.

"Uh, but if your mom overheard, she must know that Sakura didn't understand the gift and that she hasn't accepted your proposal." Shisui countered, bringing Itachi back to reality.

"Of course she knows, but she wants Sakura to marry one of us, an Uchiha, and as she so bluntly put it to me two hours ago, why not me since I have been in love with her for the last ten years." Itachi's mouth twitched.

"Sasuke clearly still has feelings for her, she broke up with him remember, because he had smothered her. How does your mom think that will go over, if Sakura does end up choosing you, or a different Uchiha for that matter?" Shisui did not think this was a good idea.

The immediate family had told the rest that Sakura and Sasuke had broken up because he had been too clingy, smothered her too much. Most believed it because Sakura was strong and intelligent and it seemed in character. Sakura had agreed to the story, not wanting to humiliate Sasuke.

``I'm going to need something a little stronger tonight, let's find the bar." Shisui and Itachi wove their way through the crowd to the bar.

Sakura and Sasuke were moving slowly around the gallery hand in hand looking at the art, it was very unusual like the reviews had said. They were human body parts, cut into artistic slices and set back together in the most unusual designs. Sakura found it absolutely fascinating. Sasuke did not.

She was leaning over to get a better look at a hand that had been cut open to reveal the common palmar digital artery, ulnar artery and nerve, and most of the tendons.

She turned to Sasuke trying to draw his attention to the hand she was inspecting but he was looking off into the distance, eyes glazed over. Was that his 6th glass of champagne?

Obito happened to walk by at that moment to compliment Sakura on her looks and she asked Obito to see Sasuke to a seat in the corner so he could enjoy his last glass of champagne without falling over and sharing it with others by spilling it on them. Obito laughed and took Sasuke by the arm steering him to the cushioned seats along the back wall. Sakura smiled her thanks and turned back to her inspection of the hand.

She knew she wasn't supposed to touch the glass but she couldn't help drawing the tendon lines with her nail. "Such beautiful surgical precision, it is a delight to see." She said to herself.

"Do you think so?" A drawling low voice asked beside her.

Sakura looked up to red hair and amber eyes, "Sasori?" Sakura choked. She hadn't been expecting to see him here of all places.

"Sakura." He bowed to her from the waist. "What was it you were saying about the surgical precision? Why do you find it beautiful?" His amber eyes seemed to shine brightly as he spoke with her, trailing over her hair, her bare shoulders, her dress, down her legs to her open toed crystal shoes and back up.

Her breath caught in her throat. He seemed different tonight. Of course, she had only seen him in art class once and then a second time outside of art class when it had been canceled and he had asked her out to coffee but...he seemed almost dangerous tonight in his black suit, black vest and black tie. The only ornament in his dress, the blood red ruby stick pin for his tie.

Sakura licked her lips self consciously and his eyes followed the movement of her tongue.

"I uh, was just talking to myself. I thought the precision of which the artist made their cuts on this hand was beautifully done because it was done with such raw precision." She blushed. Most men would find it odd for a woman to speak of a human hand as such but Sasori seemed to be pleased with her statement. His eyes shone brighter as he looked at her and nodded.

"Indeed I find that the steady hand of the artist is reflected in the precision displayed before us, tell me, what do you think of this piece here." He guided her to the next glass case his hand resting on the bare skin of her lower back, warm and weighty, his thumb caressing her with little circles as he moved closer to her on the pretense of pointing out a specific part of the piece before them.

She bent forward slightly to see what he was trying to show her. "See how the artist was careful to expose the papillary muscles, see the white and bluish hue?"

"I see" she smiled at him. "Such intricate work, that could not have been an easy task, steady hand indeed!" She was fascinated and he could tell, it was written all over her face. Her eyes absolutely glowed with interest, he pulse raced with excitement, her smile shown her joy, he was mesmerized. She was a work of art.

"You speak as if you have some familiarity with the anatomy of the human body, are you perhaps in med school? I had thought you came from the psych building but I could be mistaken." He knew he wasn't. He watched her from the second story window on the second day talking to her Psych teacher after they got out of the car together, watched her walk into the building and come out after his class, watched as she practically ran to the art building and how her teacher had sat under the tree watching her. No. He was not mistaken.

"I switched to Psychology but I was pre-med before I moved. I am going to go back, after this semester. I'm going to move back to Konoha and take up pre-med again." She told him as she further inspected the heart before her.

Sasori stood beside her and nodded, his hand on her lower back caressing her soft skin and watched her. He liked how expressive she was, her whole body told some form of an emotion. The eyes were easy of course and fascinated him, her mouth to be sure, she moved her lips back and forth when she was thinking, sometimes biting her lower lip, sometimes pursuing them as if questioning herself.

Yes, Sasori was fascinated by this new...Doll. She looked like a forest fairy. All sparkly silver dressings in her pink locks, the dark green with the sheer white silk over top. Long beautiful legs shown from the front, with a gentle sloping of thick silk over her bottom to fall gracefully to the floor. Yes, he liked the look of her. He found he was no longer interested in looking at his pieces to find out what she liked most about his art. He found what he wanted to do most was to look at her, this living breathing art before his eyes. This living Doll under his hand.

"Sakura dear, I have been looking for you. I must admit I had not noticed you among such...company." Madara practically sneered at Sasori as he snaked his arm around her waist and drew her from Sasori to himself.

"Madara, please allow me to introduce," Sakura began.

"I know who he is my darling girl, Akasuna no Sasori." Madara was looking at Sasori like he was something unpleasant on the bottom of his shoe.

"Lord Uchiha, tell me, how is your dear little brother Izuna nowadays?" Sasori smiled a grotesque sort of smile at Madara.

Madra gripped Sakura's waist a little too hard at that, but she didn't flinch, she had expected it. Izuna, Madara's younger brother had been killed in the take down of Akasuna no Dokuhebi. So he had been Sasori's father.

"You bastard, I should have killed your father instead of bringing him in the scum sucking fuck that he is. Stay away from my niece! If I see you around her again I will gut you like one of these grotesque pieces you call art and display your body in the village square!" Madara spun on his heel propelling Sakura with her.

"It was a pleasure to see you Sakura, I look forward to having coffee when you get back to campus next week," Sasori called after her in his low drawling tones.


	3. Chapter 3

Sakura tried to turn to look back at Sasori but Madara was having none of it. He had a death grip on her waist and was ushering her through the crowd. They stopped in front of Itachi. Madara gave her a gentle push and she stumbled forward a little, Itachi raised his arms to balance her and drew her back up against his chest, looking over her head to Madara.

"What is it, uncle?" Itachi scanned the room, eyes alert.

"Your future wife was consorting with the enemy unbeknownst to her." Madara gave Itachi a look.

"I'm not his." Sakura began but was interrupted by Shisui.

"He is here?" Shisui began to look around scanning the crowd like Itachi.

"I am going to alert Fugaku, kami knows why none of us knew, it makes us look like fools!" Madara clenched his fist and slammed it into the wood paneling of the bar cracking the solid oak.

Sakura's eyes went wide, incredible.

"Itachi, have Sasuke take Sakura home, I want you here with the rest of the team as soon as she is out the door," Madara said firmly, then bending to kiss Sakura on the cheek he turned and left to find Obito.

"Itachi what's going on, is Madara looking for Sasori, what did he do?" Sakura was so confused.

"You know Sasori of the Red Sand?" Itachi said with surprise.

"Well I wouldn't say I know him but we have art class together every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. He asked me out for coffee the other day but Sasuke drove up and took me home, then we came here to Konoha." Sakura was starting to panic, who was Sasori?

"Sasori of the Red Sand is the only son of Akasuna no Dokuhebi and international criminal who dealt in arms, drugs and human trafficking. Uncle Madara brought him in. Sasori is the one thought to have killed Uncle Izuna, but it didn't hold up in court." Itachi had her by the hand and was looking through the crowds for Sasuke.

"What, that is impossible, he is in my art class for heaven's sake. He can't be some kind of international criminal." She thought this was being blown way out of proportion here.

Itachi stopped and took her by the shoulders, "Sakura, you have been around the Uchiha for years, you know who we are, what our family does, we know he is an international criminal. Just because he hasn't been caught doesn't make him innocent, it makes him more dangerous." Itachi resumed looking for Sasuke.

The Uchiha, one of the two oldest families in Konoha, the elite military force of the Fire country, special forces. Yes, she knew who they were.

She, however, was a nobody, Sakura Haruno college student, no money, no status, no clan, nothing. Why would Sasori talk to her? Oh, yes, she had walked in on the arm of the Heir to the Uchiha Clan, Madara never having settled down to marry and have a son, it was left to Itachi. She wasn't even officially adopted by them though, not on paper, but where it counted, yes, she was.

Sasuke was running toward them, "Are you sober enough to take Sakura home?" Itachi asked him.

"Yes." I'll get your truck be right back, don't move." Sasuke ran off with Itachi's keys.

"Sakura, go home with Sasuke, the rest of the family will…" Itachi never got to finish there was an explosion from the other room.

"Stay here!" Itachi ran off in the other direction toward the explosion.

"Champaign miss?" a waiter was offering her a glass of champagne, she took it with a nod and drank deeply. The glass was finished by the time Sasuke came back to get her.

"The truck is running out front come on let's get home." He took her hand and ushered her out of the gallery.

Lazy half hooded eyes watched her run out of the gallery's main floor with the Uchiha brat. Sasori slipped out the back door and into his black SUV to follow them.

Sakura sat in the truck's passenger seat adrenaline surging throughout her body. She hoped everyone was okay. She should have stayed to help. Madara had insisted she leave though. Itachi may be the heir but Madara was the head of the clan still.

Sasuke merged onto the freeway glancing every now and then to Sakura to see if she was okay. She knew what his family was, what they did, what they were involved in but she had never seen it first hand. He was worried seeing this side of his family might scare her away. His parents and his uncles had tried to keep the younger generation secluded as possible from the realities of their family, particularly the women. Only when Sasuke had turned 13 was he allowed to be part of the clan meetings, that was when he found out what it really meant to be an Uchiha.

Sasuke had missed her terribly when she had moved. He was trying desperately to get her back. He felt he had been doing a good job so far. She looked so beautiful tonight, he had drunk glass after glass of champagne to keep from touching her and had overdone it a bit.

They pulled up to the main gate of the compound and he punched in the code. Sasuke noticed she had fallen asleep. The gate slid open then the other gate opened, then the last one lifted up and he drove the truck through and up to the house. He ran around the truck to open her door for her and she all but fell out of her seat. What was wrong with her?

He lifted her up in his arms and carried her inside the house, upstairs to his room and laid her on his bed. He sat down next to her tucking a stray lock of hair behind her ear. She looked so beautiful with her hair done up, in that fairies dress, so sexy. He cleared his throat and coughed.

"Sakura?" He patted her cheek a bit.

"Hm Sasuke?" She managed to get out if a bit slurred.

"Sakura? You okay? Are you drunk?" He patted her face again.

She rolled over on his bed and stretched out then curled up a bit on her side and hummed into the pillow smiling.

"Sakura, are you feeling okay ?" He ran his hand across her bare shoulder, she was so soft.

"I'm good." Came muffled from the pillow.

Sasuke got up and took off his suit coat and tie and hung them on his chair. He started to undo his cufflinks when she moaned out loud. He stopped and looked at her. She had her legs crossed on her side and the heavy silk had fallen from her thigh and back off her ass leaving the full length of her legs bare to him. Her sparkling beaded chest glittered as she breathed heavily. Was she dreaming?

Sasuke set his cufflinks down and went over to sit beside her on his bed. He leaned over her and stopped dead. Her hair had come down on the side and was spread out in haphazard curls across his pillow, her pink lips puffy from her biting them as she was doing now and her legs lay bare and rubbing together. He grew hard just watching her. She bit her lip and made a low noise in her throat that had his hands on her quicker than he could think at what a horrible idea it was. He had never been able to resist her.

Sasuke had lifted her head up and kissed her mouth lightly once and she pressed herself into him her tongue sliding across his lips into his mouth. She had never kissed him like that before. His mouth went dry as she wantonly pressed herself up against him making small mewling noises in her throat. He ran his hands up and down the sides of her body then up under her dress pulling at her underwear.

He crawled on top of her as he slid her underwear down and off her legs, taking her hands in his and pressing them one on each side of her head, he kissed her and ground into her body.

"Sasuke." she moaned. "Sasuke please, I want you, fuck me."

Sasuke ripped his cock from his pants and lifted her ass off the bed and thrust up inside her, she arched her back and moaned, he gripped her hips and ground up into her.

"Sakura, I love you. Ah you feel so good." He kissed her neck and lifted her legs up by her knees and thrust in then pulled out to slam back into her again.

"Sakura I'm sorry, I'm not going to last much longer, you're too tight baby." He pulls out and pushes his cock back up into her. "Ummm Gh. Sakura I'm coming please, I'm sorry. I have wanted you for so long." He pulls out and slams back into her one more time gripping her legs up and back around him he pumps his cum deep into her moaning her name rocking back and up then collapses rolling to her side with his eyes closed.

He reaches his hand out to her and takes her hand in his and kisses it. He pulls himself up to a sitting position and covers her with his blanket. He kisses her mouth and smoothes her hair back out of her face then walks to his bathroom. He starts a shower, strips and gets in.

Sasuke gets out of the shower and checks on Sakura. She is still sleeping soundly. He lifts her dress and cleans her up with a small washrag, picks her up and takes her into her room and puts her on her bed. He smoothes her dress down, covers her with a blanket and closes the door to her room, leaving it open just a bit like usual.

He goes back into his room and lays on his bed, it smells like her. He pushes his face into his pillow and inhales. "Sakura."

"Enjoying yourself?" Itachi asks him from the door to his bedroom.

"Arck!" Sasuke jumps up from his bed. "I wasn't doing anything." He stutters.

"Right." Itachi smirks and walks toward Sakura's room.

Itachi cracks the door open a little more and peeks in. She is still asleep so he shuts the door and walks back to Sasuke's room.

"Did you guys make it home ok? No interference?" Itachi asked him.

"Everything went fine," Sasuke said.

"Something happened, what happened?" Itachi can't figure it out but Sasuke is acting differently. "Tell me."

"Ugh, I still love her Itachi, and I know you do too. Mother had her step out with her tonight. She wants Sakura to marry you." Sasuke said all these things as statements, not questions.

Itachi came into his room and sat on the bed opposite to Sasuke. "I do love her, I know you do too. Mother wants her to marry an Uchiha, it doesn't matter which one of us she chooses to mom, she wouldn't mind if she chose Shisui."

"Let her chose little brother because if we push her, she won't choose any Uchiha and we will be sure to lose her for good." Itachi patted his brother on the shoulder. And left his room.

"Except I am the only Uchiha that has ever been inside of her or came into her," Sasuke spoke quietly and smiled into his pillow that smelled like Sakura.

Itachi was waiting for a call from his father with the all clear. They had two teams looking for Sasori and none of them had found one clue as to his whereabouts.

Itachi didn't like what Madara had told him. Sakura had an art class with Sasori, they had met before tonight and Sasori had asked her out for coffee.

Itachi found himself pacing and his pacing had found him in front of Sakura's room. Itachi opened the door and looked inside. He slipped in and closed the door behind him. She had kicked the covers and was flung sideways on the bed. He leaned over her body to pull up and straighten her covers when she turned and kissed him moaning into his mouth.

He leaned back and away from her but she wrapped her arms around his neck and was sucking on his bottom lip. He closed his eyes and kissed her back, rolling his tongue around her mouth and cupping her face. His hands ran over her bare shoulders down her chest over her sequined breasts to her waist. She moved her body into his touch and moaned into his mouth again. Itachi stilled and pushed her back a little to look into her eyes. They were closed. He leaned forward to sniff her breath and she tried to kiss him again.

"Oh shit." He picked her up and ran to the garage.

Sasuke ran out of his room and into the garage just as Itachi was strapping Sakura into his truck.

"What are you doing?" He asked Itachi in surprise.

"She needs to get to the hospital, she has been drugged." Itachi goes to close the door when he catches sight of Sasuke's face and stops dead.

"Little brother no, please tell me you didn't take advantage of her again!" Itachi's voice was roaring by the time the sentence ended.

"I, well, she wanted to," Sasuke said weakly.

"She is fucking drugged you fucking idiot!" Itachi slammed his fist into the side of Sasuke's face knocking him out.

Itachi shuts the door to the passenger side of his truck and backs out of the garage leaving Sasuke on the ground.

Itachi pulls his cell out of his pocket and calls his dad to let him know Sakura has been drugged and that he is taking her to the hospital. Itachi shakes his head he can't fucking believe Sasuke. He should have known she was poisoned like Itachi had. Yes he wanted to kiss her, yes he wanted to bed her, but damn it, she wasn't in her right mind and he could tell that, why couldn't his brother!

A dark SUV was coming up fast on his left. Itachi speeds up and calls his dad again.

"I'm being followed, nondescript black SUV. We are at Raku and Akimichi street, ten minutes from the Hospital.' Itachi says into the phone and hangs up.

"Shit." The SUV has sped up alongside of them and the window is rolled down.

"Sasori." Itachi breathes.

"I just want the girl, no harm needs to come to your family Uchiha, just give me the girl," Sasori calls to Itachi.

"No." Itachi cuts the wheel, both vehicles topple off the side of the hill and rolls once then twice to the bottom.

Itachi looks over at Sakura, she is a bit tousled but ok. Itachi's head hurts and his vision is going fuzzy, he can see lights upside down in the distance. He hears someone swearing by the passenger door to his truck.

"Next time Uchiha, you can't watch her 24/7" Sasori drawls and the pounding of feet can be heard as he runs away.

"Sakura," Itachi says and passes out.


	4. Chapter 4

"We have to get this cleaned up or it will be all over the news," Madara tells Obito. "Call your guys and have them come get these vehicles and dispose of them."

"Sakura and Itachi need medical attention, get a discreet doctor, now. I can't wait for that girl to finish med school then we won't have to worry so much." Madara tells Fugaku.

"Let's get them back to the compound, for now, Shisui put them in your truck and let's move!" Madara hisses, his head hurts. What a fucking night.

Shisui opens the garage and starts to pull in when he sees Sasuke on the floor. "What the hell happened to you." He slapped him hard across the face for fun. "Wake up sleeping beauty."

"Ugh, where's Itachi?" Sasuke has his hand to his face, fingers gently touching the puffy area.

"He and Sakura took a few flips in his truck, they are banged up a bit but they will be okay. Fugaku is going to get the "On call" doctor now. What the hell happened to you?" Shisui smiles at him.

"Did you know Sakura has been drugged?" Sasuke asks.

"Yeah, Itachi had called your dad and told him he was taking Sakura to the hospital, but that's when Akasuna no Sasori ran them off the road and they all took a few flips over a hill in their vehicles." Shisui cocked his head at Sasuke.

"Shit, no way." Sasuke moaned.

"She was poisoned with something that made her want to uh...you know and I didn't know it but Itachi did." Sasuke looked down at the ground, his eyes darting back and forth.

Shisui looked at him and opened his mouth to say something then shut it, stood, grabbed Sasuke by the front of his shirt and punched him in the face just like Itachi then dropped him to the ground. "Scum." Shisui kicked him in the ribs and heard a crack.

Shisui called Fugaku. "I just got to the main house, Sasuke is on the ground knocked out, looks like he might have some broken ribs." He hung up and kicked Sasuke again.

Madara showed up just as Fugaku got there with the doctor and they both ushered him inside to look at Itachi and Sakura.

Obito showed up next to let Madara know the vehicles had been taken care of and nothing was on the news.

Mikoto and Fugaku walked out of Sakura's room and went into Itachi's with the doctor next. Mikoto came out alone and went to put on some tea. She took two glasses into Sakura's room and shut the door.

Shisui, Obito and Sasuke we sitting on the couch now, Sasuke having woken up and joined the rest of his family.

Mikoto came out of Sakura's room and motioned for Sasuke, "She wants to speak to you."

"I need to see the doctor, I think my ribs are broken." Sasuke says without looking at his mother.

"Get your ass in here or I will break more than your ribs my boy." Mikoto told him calmly but dangerously.

Sasuke flinched visibly and walked through the door to Sakura's room his mother was holding open for him. Mikoto walked to the couch and sat down with Shisui and Obito and sipped her tea.

"Does she know what he did?" Shisui spoke first.

"Yes," Mikoto said. "So do I, so do you and my husband, and that is all there needs to be."

Obito looked out the window and let them have their conversation. His mind was on Akasuna no Sasori and his potential motives. Obito didn't think it was as straightforward as a simple kidnapping attempt and human trafficking. Why the poison...Sasori wanted Sakura, not just any pretty girl, he wanted her specifically because he knew her, he liked her. Obito twirled his knife in his hand lost in thought.

He would wait for Madara to come out of Itachi's room with the doctor, he would need to speak to both of them, Madara and Itachi.

Sasuke stood with his back against the door to her room. She was sitting up in her bed not looking at him but she knew he was there. He shifted his weight nervously and slowly walked over to her bed and sat down.

"Get off my bed." She said quietly.

He stood. "Sakura, I." How could he tell her. "I love you." He looked down at the floor, "I'm sorry."

She turned her head to him then and got out of her bed. She had changed, the dress was gone, replaced by one of Itachi's old tee shirts he had given her last year and a pair of old shorts. She stood there looking at him then took the few steps to stand directly in front of him.

"Look at me." She commanded.

Sasuke raised his head and looked at her. She drew her hand back and slapped him hard across the face. "You are dead to me. Get out of my room."

He left.

Madara and Fugaku left Itachi's room a little while later and made their way to the living room to join the rest of the family. Obito voiced his opinions he had on what Sasori's motivation for kidnapping Sakura might be.

No one noticed Sakura had joined them. "He is attracted to my intelligence and my emotions." She explained their interactions at the gallery and about their first class together when she had impressed and intrigued him with her bubbly opinions on art. "He said he would see me for coffee back at school."

"You can't seriously be thinking of going back to school Sakura!" Shisui was shocked at the ridiculous notion.

"Sakura dear, you will not be going back to school this semester, you had planned on coming home after this semester anyway. Drop your classes, it is so early in the semester that is won't affect your financial aid or your GPA. You can start the next semester here at Konoha University, where we can protect you." Madara said.

"Like you did tonight?" She hadn't meant to say it, it had just slipped out.

Sasuke got up from his chair off to the side and walked out of the room.

"We have a better chance of protecting you here Sakura than in the next city over." Fugaku tried to reason with her.

It was Mikoto 's voice that swayed her.

"Sakura, do you love me as I love you as my daughter?" She asked the girl as though they were the only ones in the room and no one else mattered.

"Do you want me to grieve your early death, or worry every moment of every day you won't return, that every time I see you could be the last?" Mikoto's tears slip from her eyes onto the cloak she still wore.

"Because that is what will happen if you refuse to come home if you are stubborn and do not allow us to help you. We are family Sakura, do you not think of us as a family?" Mikoto reached her hand out for the girl who stood in her living room surrounded by her family.

Sakura nodded her head for fear her voice would crack if she spoke and stepped forward taking Mikoto's hand in hers, "Yes, mother." and she let Mikoto kiss her head and pet her.

Itachi stood by the hall leading to the living room watching this play out. He nodded his head and went back to his room. Good, she would stay and he would make sure she was safe.

In a studio apartment, in another town…

He traced the arch of her brow with his finger holding his breath, so that the simple process of breathing could not distract him from enjoying the sensation of the touch. He slowly exhaled and then slowly inhaled again as he imagined cupping her small face with his larger hands and running his lips gently back and forth over hers. He wanted to see the look in her eyes, feel the hitch in her breath as he holds her against his chest. His fingers twitch and his blood churns in the simple wanting of her body. His living doll...soon he whispers as he studies the pictures on his wall. Soon Sakura...he wants to know, he wants to learn, and only she can teach him...how to feel human again. How to feel alive.


	5. Chapter 5

2 weeks later…..

Itachi stood in the middle of Sakura's old living room holding a box of really heavy books. Sakura was walking back and forth in front of him adding more and more books.

"Sakura." He tried to get her attention.

She added another book to the box that she had left in the kitchen.

"Sakura."

Two more books made their way into the box he was holding.

"Hey uh, Sakura?" Itachi was getting desperate.

She added two more books to the box and stopped in front of him, "Yea?"

"Please stop adding books or I'm going to die." His face was red. Shisui whizzed by and grabbed the box and rushed out the door.

Itachi sighed in relief. He wasn't weak but his back still hurt a bit from rolling twice in his truck the night of the gallery.

"Sorry." Sakura stifled her giggle.

"Looks like we're almost done here, right?" He looked around, there were a few boxes by the door and a lamp but that was it.

"Yeah, I guess so." She was biting her bottom lip and looking around her soon to be old apartment.

"Mom is really happy you're moving back home," Itachi said as he rubbed her back in reassurance. "So am I."

She stepped into his touch and sighed a bit," It's just, a lot has happened all at once it seems."

"Don't worry, your life will go back to the dull and boring med school student soon enough." Itachi teased her and she laughed.

"Sakura! Let's get going! I have a hot date tonight!" Shisui called from the door of the apartment.

They got her stuff to her parent's house that was now hers and helped her unload. Obito met them before Itachi and Shisui left to keep her company. Madara didn't want her to be alone after what had happened so one random Uchiha was with her at all times, be it at home, shopping or running in the park.

It had been two weeks and there hadn't been any new attempts but Madara said that wasn't unusual for the Akasuna. He said they like to take their time and plan, it's what makes them so dangerous.

Fugaku was busy dealing with a string of possibly related murders in Konoha. They had found the first body the week of the gallery showing. It had been a young girl, around 18 years old. She had been dressed up and lines had been "attached" to her body as if she were a puppet. It was a sick and twisted investigation and had kept his precinct busy ever since. The second "puppet" had been found in the next city over from Konoha to the north. Same MO, girl around 19 years old, dressed up but in a french maid's outfit, with lines "Attached" to her body.

It was clear there was a new serial killer, they called him the Puppeteer. The third body was found in a lake dressed as an ice skater, same lines, same MO. All of the girls were unique, they had a distinguishing feature, be it face, eyes, or hair color, they were picked with care. It had been one body a week with no leads and they were going into the fourth week now.

"Hey Sakura, I was thinking we could do Chinese food tonight, how does that sound to you?" Obito called to her from the kitchen.

"Great! Whatever you want!" She yelled back from the bedroom, her old bedroom she had when she was a kid.

It didn't feel right taking over her parents' room so she turned it into an art studio instead. There were windows that lined the whole wall facing the woods to the east so she had great light in the morning and another wall to the southwest, had two huge windows that let light into the room in the afternoon. Her mother had been an artist and often painted in the corner of the room by the biggest window.

Itachi said he would be back later to relieve Obito around midnight so she set a few books she knew he would like to read in the spare room she had set up for whoever would be staying with her. It was odd she would admit but she also didn't want to be alone. She had a few panic attacks after the incident and found the ever-present Uchihas a great comfort.

Naruto came to visit her a few times and brought his dad with him once which was a little awkward. Minato couldn't seem to keep his eyes off her and it made her understandably uncomfortable. For the most part, though her life was getting back on track. She had two months till the next semester and was already registered for her classes.

Madara had come over to have dinner with her the third night after she had moved in, she hadn't even stocked her fridge yet. He kissed her cheek in greeting and handed her a folder with some paperwork and her schedule for the next semester. How he had managed to get it taken care of before it was open for enrollment was beyond her but she had learned not to question it over the years.

She sighed as she emptied what must be her 45th box that day and fell back onto her bed blowing air through her lips making them vibrate into funny noises. Obito smiled at her from her bedroom door.

" Kung pao Chicken or beef with broccoli?" He asked her.

"Garlic shrimp?" she batted her eyelashes at him and winked.

"That only works on Itachi and Shisui, no seafood." He smiled at her and waggled his eyebrows. He looked so funny she busted out laughing.

"Kung Pao chicken, spicy hot!" She smiled at him upside down as she slid off her bed sideways and onto the floor, she was so tired from all the moving.

Obito left to call in their order muttering something about how she hated him and wanted him to develop an ulcer or something. She smiled to herself.

It was nice to have people around like this all the time. She didn't like it at first but she had to admit , it was...comforting. She had been an only child and her parents had been an only child, so she wasn't used to a lot of multiple family interactions all the time. Of course, she had spent a lot of time as a young adult and teen with the Uchiha but there was something different about it when they were in your home and not you visiting them.

She looked out the window, she hadn't realized it was getting so late, she had wanted to get as much done as possible and had lost track of the time. She picked up a box of art supplies that got put in her bedroom by accident and took it to her studio and set it down.

Last night she had started a new acrylic painting of a desert and sand dunes with an almost mythical oasis far in the distance. Landscapes were never really her thing but she had gotten the urge and was inspired. Sakura stood in front of her painting surveying and critiquing her work on it so far when she noticed behind her canvass one of her windows was unlocked and was open half an inch. She frowned, had she opened the window? No, maybe one of the guys had? She would ask them. She closed the window and made sure to click the locks on it shut, then walked out of the room to wait for the Chinese food.

Obito and her ate companionably and watched Mysteries Unsolved till midnight when Itachi showed up. She had agreed they could all have a copy of her key so they didn't have to knock on the door if it was early or late and startle her. Most of them would stop by before or after a shift at the precinct so they ran odd hours around her, Itachi took over Obito's spot on the center couch and pulled a throw over his long legs relaxing comfortably.

He and Sakura had fallen back into their childhood comfort relationship acting more like brother and sister than friends. She was grateful for it and looked forward to him coming to watch her the most. Itachi had a very relaxed calming sort of placid personality. Little surprised or angered him, he always seemed to be in complete control. He was reliable and it made her feel safe to be with him.

She smiled tiredly at him and snuggled back into her side of the couch drawing her own fluffy throw up over her legs and turned back to the TV. The segment was on a serial killer and it reminded her of how hard his father had been working over the last few weeks. "How is the case of the Puppeteer coming Itachi?" She looked over the top of her blanket at him.

"Still no leads, it is rather disturbing how the serial killer dresses them up like dolls and attaches strings to them like puppets. The placement of the strings are accurate, the costumes are authentic and handmade, the detail that goes into it is the most disturbing. Whoever the serial killer is they seem to be highly intelligent, they leave no evidence. In a way, each case is so similar and very...familiar, but I can't piece enough pieces together to come up with a suspect." It bothered him she could tell. The murderers bothered him, yes but it was more, it was as if he knew who the murderer was but was just shy of figuring it out.

Sakura extended her foot and poked him in the leg to bring him out of his head, "Hey, you're brilliant, I know you and your father will figure it out, I have faith in you."

Her simple yet sincere words brought a smile to his face. He reached over and grabbed her foot tugging on it playfully.

"Thank you Sakura." He pulled her foot up and kept it in his lap rubbing his thumb over the top of the sensitive skin of her arch making her shiver and blush.

Her foot jerked in his hand and he looked into her eyes, "What's wrong?"

"Oh um nothing, sorry, ticklish," she mumbled and he smiled at her again.

She tucked her arm under her head and settled back into her comfy spot, yes, it was nice having Itachi here with her.

She had fallen asleep but woke to light touches on her face. Her eyes fluttered open. "Sakura." It was Itachi, "Let's get you into your bed, you're falling asleep." He slipped his arms under her body and lifted her blanket and all up off of the couch and headed for her bedroom. Itachi set her down gently on her bed and arranged the blanket comfortably around her, kissed her on the forehead and shut the door to her room with only an inch or two to spare.

"Goodnight Ita." She smiled into her pillow and closed her eyes.

When she woke it was to his touch again, he was petting the hair from her face, "Good morning Sakura." His soft voice washed over her ears and she couldn't help but smile as she opened her eyes. He smiled down at her and told her he was making breakfast if she wished to join him and he left her room.

She got up and dressed stretching lightly. On the way downstairs she stopped by her studio and looked at her painting. Maybe after breakfast, she would work on it a little.

The smell of biscuits and bacon filled her nose as she skipped downstairs to see Itachi in an apron flipping eggs on her stove. She giggled and he turned around to smile at her, "What are you laughing at ?"

"You! You're wearing an apron…" She covered her mouth with her hand, it was just too cute!

"Don't you wear an apron when you cook?" He mocks frowned at her playfully.

"Well, I don't really cook so...no?" She giggled more.

Itachi smiled at her again, she was so cute when she covered her mouth and laughed. He scooped up an egg from the skillet onto a plate and handed it to her. "Biscuits and gravy, and bacon are on the table in the dining room, I'll be right there."

She smiled at him, "Thanks Ita." and walked to the dining room on the other side of the kitchen wall.

Itachi stood there looking after her for a moment. His smile grew, she called me Ita, he thought to himself. He turned back to the skillet to scoop up his own egg and put it on a plate. He was still smiling when he came into the dining room to find her shoveling biscuits into her mouth and he burst out laughing at the sight. There were crumbs on her chin and down the front of her shirt and in her lap.

"What?" She blinked at him innocently, "You know how much I love biscuits." she blushed.

"I'm pleased that you are enjoying them so much." He handed her a napkin when his phone rang. "Excuse me for a moment." and he flipped his phone open as he walked back into the kitchen. He was back, not even a minute later with a slight frown on his face.

"What's wrong Ita?" Sakura asked him as he sat down at the table and picked up his chopsticks.

"Obito will be pulling a double today, he won't be back so I'll stay with you if you don't mind. There has been another murder." He hesitated, not sure if he should tell her the rest. "Shisui will be stopping by for added measures. The girl, this time her hair was dyed pink and she had green colored contacts. She was dressed in a short red dress and black shorts with knee high boots."

She dropped her chopsticks and they clattered to the table. Her mouth dropped open."What" she croaked.

His phone rang again but he didn't get up and leave, he put his chopsticks down and flipped his phone open. "Yeah, dad?"

Sakura's head was spinning. She had only spent one class talking to him and a few minutes out of class, their time at the gallery but he just didn't seem the type to her. He was quiet, controlled, different but not so unlike Itachi really. He was intelligent, good looking, and she liked talking to him if she were honest. Sakura just couldn't connect the serial killer, international criminal to the intelligent artist she had met. Nor could she dismiss the Uchihas facts and opinions of him and his father either. She remembered their first conversation about how she and Ino had gotten dressed up, in short red dresses and black shorts with knee high boots. How it was the inspiration for her abstract painting they were working on in class. It was very disturbing for her.

Itachi closed his phone. "Dad is sending an extra patrol car to cruise by every so often, they won't stop in but just drive by to make their presence known, don't worry. Shisui is heading over now too, so we can both be here for you if you need us. It's going to be okay Sakura, I won't let anything happen to you." Itachi doubted an extra patrol car would stop a serial killer but maybe it would make Sakura feel better.

Itachi knew who the serial killer was now, it made sense but he didn't want to alarm Sakura needlessly. However, she wasn't stupid, Itachi knew she just had to get over the shock and her brain would start moving, let her come to it on her own, he thought.

Paper and chunks of wood hit the floor, glass vials and tubes of paint were flung against the walls. "Not good enough!" He pulled his red hair and fell to the ground seething.

"Do it again! This time exactly how I showed you!" He was screaming at her.

The girl sat back on the bed holding a book and pretended to read, sitting just how he had shown her, her feet just so, her head tilted, as tears ran down her face.

He glared at her, why couldn't they just listen and do what he told them. Incompetent! This one had blonde hair but her body was similar and her face was the same shape. He had cut her hair just like hers last night which helped with the illusion, but it still wasn't her, not yet. A good substitute, a temporary fix.

He walked over to the girl and took the book from her hand laying it on the nightstand. "Sakura lay down. I want to make you feel good. I'm going to show you how inspire me." The girl started to shake as he crawled onto the bed with her and started to untie the traditional kimono she was wearing.


	6. Chapter 6

Shisui blew into the house with a whirlwind of leaves. It wasn't raining yet but it would be soon. The news said that a storm was heading their way but no tornado sightings as of yet.

Shisui and Itachi were going over a thick folder when she walked into her living room. He had brought over copies of the Puppeteer case, pictures, and reports. Itachi and Shisu weren't detectives but they were geniuses in their own right and were well respected by the family for their insight.

Itachi had been the one who had pointed out the subtle pattern in Akasuna no Dokuhebi's behavior that led to his capture by Madara and he had only been 12 years old at that time. Shisui may be a flirt and act the fool but he wasn't one.

Sakura passed through the living room to the kitchen for a glass of water. She took a glass down from her cabinet and filled it from the tap. She stood with her back to the counter looking out her sliding glass door window that led to the deck in the backyard. She took a deep breath and sighed. She was getting cabin fever, she needed to get out of the house. Maybe tomorrow. The wind was picking up again, today wouldn't be a good day to go outside.

Her finger tapped restlessly on her glass as she watched the tops of the trees sway back and forth in the wind. A flash of red, she stood up straight and stared at the spot she had seen the red, nothing happened. She cocked her head to the side and kept looking, a flash of amber. She dropped her glass of water and ran to the living room.

Itachi and Shisui met her halfway. They had heard the glass shatter and were running to check on her. "Red, amber eyes, Sa Sasori. I saw him outside in the trees" She pointed back to the kitchen.

Itachi ran out the back door and Shisui headed for the kitchen stepping over the glass on his way to the sliding glass door. He pulled his phone out and called Madara, looking out the window for any sign of the psychopath.

20 minutes later Madara, Itachi, and Shisui sat in her living room going over the folder and asking her questions about what she had seen. Itachi had gone out the back door but had come back empty handed, Shisui hadn't seen anything and after Madara arrived they went back into the house. Sakura retold them what she had seen but it didn't seem to help much. Again, there wasn't much to go on. At the end of the conversation, she thought she may have even imagined it.

Needing to think of something else, she excused herself and went upstairs to her studio to work on her painting. She rolled her brush along the canvas, sharp pointed hairs painted thin accenting lines across the desert sky, she dipped her brush into the tan and yellow, a dab of grey and her brush slid over the grained surface, she closed her eyes and visualized herself in the dessert. She imagined the heat and the wind cutting at her bare skin. The sun would be hot, the air dry, she tilted her head back and thought of how she would still see the light through her closed eyes if she were there. She saw herself walking up a dune, alone and parched. Her throat grew dry just at the thought, her fingers twitched, brush forgotten in her hand. She took a deep breath and came back to reality. Setting her brush down she walked out of the room.

Lost in thought she hadn't seen the amber eyes through her second story window watching her from the forest outside. She hadn't seen him taking pictures of her while she daydreamed, a subtle smile on his face, the impatient tapping of his foot on the branch. "Sakura." he looked down to the screen on his digital camera. "Soon." and he was gone.

"We can't just sit around here and wait for him to try to kidnap her again,"Shisui argued.

"We aren't," Madara said impatiently. "This is Sasori, he is just as brilliantly devious as his father, we can not run in guns blazing or take him lightly."

"You talk as though you respect him uncle," Itachi said without heat or sarcasm, it was more of an observation.

"His intelligence is worthy of my respect, his actions are not. I don't want anything to happen to Sakura just as much as you two, which is why we must be careful. Sasori is a methodical almost obsessive compulsive individual. He will not give up on her, his father was the same way, it is only a matter of time before he tries to take her again, we must be ready." Madara rose from his seat.

"I need to get going. Retirement was never so stressful. Call me if anything comes up. Itachi, I want you to stay with Sakura again tonight, I have arranged it with Fugaku, you will remain with her at all times now that the situation has changed. His last "Doll", disturbed us all. It seems it is personal, she is, after all, one of us." He left.

Itachi closed the door and locked it after Madara had gone. He left Shisui in the living room and went upstairs to check on Sakura and to let her know he would be staying with her until told otherwise.

He found her laying on her stomach on her bed when he walked into her room. "Sakura, I will be staying with you from now on, until my father says otherwise. I hope you are okay with that, I'm sorry. I know this isn't easy for you." He turned to leave when she didn't respond right away but her voice stopped him.

"I like you being here Itachi. Thank you." She turned her head to look at him as she spoke.

He nodded and walked out of her room back down the stairs. He liked being here too.

Sasori pinned his latest pictures of Sakura up on his wall. He was quite proud of his collection. He had managed to get several good pictures capturing her eyes filled with emotion. Some were sad, some happy, many were scared. He frowned, he didn't want her frightened of him. His favorite ones, were the ones of her deep in thought or dreaming, like the ones he had taken today. She was so beautiful, she was such an enigma to him, she intrigued him to no end. She was beautiful yes, you saw that right away but even her beauty was...different, something that was pure...her.

She wasn't beautiful, like most women, like most people saw beauty. It wasn't until you truly looked at her that you saw how beautiful she really was. The slight cock of her head while she tried to figure something out. The fire in her eyes when she got angry. The movement of her body when she laughed. The flush on her cheeks and the desire in her eyes when she spoke of something she was passionate about, her expressions and mannerisms, were just...Sakura.

He had been interested in her from their first conversation in their art class, but it wasn't until the night at the gallery he became consumed with want, desire and respect. Her knowledge and appreciation of his art warmed him, set his heart on fire, made him feel. The way she had admired his work, her awareness of the time and detail he put into it, that had won his respect. She was different.

The masses who had come to look at his art saw grotesque art, many had admired it but they did not truly see what he saw. Sakura did, and she wasn't repulsed. It had made him impulsive, something he never was, he had wanted to take her with him that night, he had broken character, it had shocked him.

Sasori respected so very few people. His disregard for humanity, basic emotions could be dated back to his childhood. He remembers sitting on the couch in his father's office reading while men and women got tortured mere feet away from him for whatever reason. There were many times he came home to find blood on the floor, walls and screaming coming from one room or another. It became, normal, and he never really minded it except for the screaming, it annoyed him.

Yes, the screaming annoyed him, but it was the begging that really angered him. Useless creatures, no bravery whatsoever, nothing to respect, worthless. Why beg? It won't make a difference, foolish, a wasted effort, and he hated them for it. When he had turned 6 his father decided to take a personal hand in his training to take over the company when he retired or if something happened to him. He trained him harshly, showing him the easiest and the most difficult way to kill people. If he failed he got beaten for it, severely. He taught him how to use fear as a weapon, how to placate and manipulate underlings. Sasori had no interest in manipulation, he thought it a waste of his time and it bored him. He did enjoy the fear, the raw emotions that it revealed.

Sasori's eyes focused on his most recent picture of Sakura bringing him back from his thoughts. He wondered what she had been thinking about as she gazed at the painting she had been creating. He had crept inside her studio and had seen it. He liked her subtle use of colors, the soft lines with the more obvious hard. He acknowledged her talent, her attention to detail. He wondered if she would like the desert, he hoped so. Everything was almost ready for her to join him there.

He took one last look at his picture wall of Sakura rubbing himself through his pants. He wanted her so much he could almost feel her. He closed his eyes and imagined her lips, so soft and willing, her hair floating around him as she lowered herself onto his waiting cock. He ran his hands through his hair opening his eyes in obvious frustration.

Where had he put his doll? Oh yes, she was downstairs. He stuck one more pin into a picture and stuck it onto the perpendicular wall. Itachi's face, Shisui's, Madara's, Fugaku's, Mikoto's, Obito's, Sasuke's, and Naruto's faces covered the wall.

He would kill them all and anyone else that stood in his way, but now, he wanted to play with his doll. He hummed to himself as he slowly walked down the stairs to the lower part of his studio, he had dyed her hair pink this morning, his last doll.

"Soon." He said to himself as he opened the door and saw the pink haired girl on the bed. He started unbuttoning his pants as he walked toward her, "Sakura, open your mouth doll."

The storm was moving in. They had light rain off and on all day but as night fell the wind had picked up and the rain fell harder on the roof and battered against the windows. Sakura didn't like storms, they reminded her of the night her parents died. It had been storming then much like it was now. She curled her legs up around her on the couch by the window watching Shisui and Itachi pore over a huge map laid out on her coffee table. They had been at it for hours only taking a small break for lunch.

Itachi got up and stretched his arms up over his head, his shirt lifted up showing a small amount of skin. Sakura was watching this display when she heard Shisui snicker. She looked over at him and he was grinning at her, when did he ever not grin. He winked at her and she blushed. Itachi gave him an odd look then looked at her and she blushed deeper. He smiled and sat back down on the couch.

"Weeeeell, " Shiisui got up and grabbed his coat off the back of a chair." I need to get going, you two have fun, see you later, call me if you need anything."

He winked at Itachi and patted Sakura on the head as he left. Sakura rolled her eyes and looked at Itachi who was looking at her.

"Dinner?" Itachi asked her.

"What should we get?" She smiled.

"I'll cook for you." He went into the kitchen and she followed him curious as to what he might make. There wasn't much in the fridge. He looked in her pantry and sighed, not much there either. She giggled from behind him.

"I don't really cook much so I don't keep a ton of food on hand." She smiled at him, he should know that by now.

"Let's go then." He took her hand and led her to the garage, grabbing his keys from the tray on the kitchen counter.

"Go where?" She asked putting on her shoes in the mudroom connected to the garage.

"To get groceries, if I am going to be here with you for awhile I am not going to live off of instant ramen and frozen TV dinners." He shook his head at her as if exasperated, which he wasn't, he knew her.

"Can we get some ice cream too, I am out of ice cream." She tugged at his arm to stand up.

"You're like a little kid you know that?" He was smiling at her teasingly.

She stuck her tongue out at him.

Itachi laughed and opened the door to his truck for her and closed it after she got in. He took out his phone and texted his father they were going to get groceries and the house would be empty temporarily. It was a system they had agreed on when Sakura had moved back to Konoha. Itachi backed out of the garage, closed it and they were off to the grocery store down the street. As they drove around the corner turning onto the main road a redheaded figure slipped through Sakura's back door and into her house.

40 minutes later the garage door opened and Itachi and Sakura get out of the truck and carry their groceries into the house. Sakura and Itachi put some of the groceries away but left the ones they would use for their meal out. Itachi's phone dings, he had a text, "Shisui will be joining us for dinner Sakura."

"That's great." Sakura smiles as she rearranges a few things in the fridge. "I hope he likes the red bean buns and miso soup you're going to make us."

"You know he eats anything, he is a walking appetite," Itachi said and shook his head.

Shisui arrives just as the buns are ready to be taken out of the steamer. "Perfect timing." Sakura says as she holds a plate for Itachi who is placing bun after bun on it.

"Did you make those?" Shisui asks Sakura

She laughs, "Uh no, are you kidding me, I can't cook, remember the cookies?"

Yes, yes he did. Both Shisui and Itachi cringe. "They were so hard you could use them to shingle a roof!" Shisui said laughing at her.

She hit him lightly on the arm and he pretended to fall over, crumpled to the ground and lay spread eagle at her feet, all with that stupid grin on his face.

Itachi stepped over his prone form as if nothing had happened with a large bowl of family rice. "Let's eat. Shisui get up, you look like an idiot."

Shisui saluted Itachi from the floor and leaped to his feet.

Sakura cleared the table after dinner and set the dishes in the washer. Itachi and Shisui pulled the ever present folder on Sasori out and were going over all the murders and information that had been gathered on them so far, the history of the Akasuna family and Sasori's father. Sakura dried her hands and waved to them as she went upstairs to her studio. She felt the breeze from the open window before she walked into the room. Her steps slowed as she stood in the doorway of her studio and saw it.

On an easel, by her own, was another painting. Like hers it was of the desert, unlike hers, it was a close up of the oasis with the desert in the background. There was a girl with pink hair sitting by the pool of water in a flowing dress of white, long hair tucked off to the side of her neck and layered like hers, she sat reading, under the shade of a huge palm fern. It was her, it was Sakura reading under the great palm fern, but that was not what drew her eye as disturbing as it was, no, what drew her eyes were the painted corpses of the women he had killed dressed as dolls, their blood staining the sand red. Signed at the bottom, Akasuna no Sasori, a note addressed to her as Akasuna no Sakura rested against the painting on the easel.

She couldn't breathe, she couldn't speak, she just stood there staring and then, she fainted. Sasori stepped out of her closet, bent down, picked up a lock of her hair and cut it off, tucking it into his pocket he stomped on the floor twice with his foot, climbed out of her window and was gone before Shisui and Itachi ran into the room to find the painting and Sakura unconscious lying on the floor.


	7. Chapter 7

She woke up screaming. Itachi jumped up from the chair he had been sleeping on beside her bed and tried to catch her flailing arms as Shisui and Obito crashed through the door to her room.

"Nightmare Sakura, you were having a nightmare. I'm here, I'm right here, you're safe." Itachi was sitting on her bed holding her to him, her head on his shoulder, her arms around his waist clinging to him shaking. His grip around her tightened as she cried, anger cut across his face. He was going to make Sasori pay for this.

Obito and Shisui left them alone once they saw she was going to be okay and went back downstairs. Fugaku, Mikoto and Madara had just shown up a little while ago and they were going over the painting and the note Sasori had left Sakura.

The note read: My Living Doll, you are a masterpiece. I will come to claim you soon. Until then keep this, a token, a promise. It is fate.

-There was a lock of bright red hair in the envelope folded in with the letter, tied with red and pink thread.

Downstairs….

"Itachi said the thread represented the threads of fate, from ancient literature and old tales. The message was clear. Sasori thought he and Sakura were destined to be together, that it was fate. He had taken a cutting of her hair and had left her one of his." Shisui updated the rest of the family present.

"He is obsessed." Mikoto looked disgusted as she looked at the painting Sasori had left in Sakura's studio.

"He is a dead man. I will not be dragging him before a court, this one dies by my hand. He threatens her, he threatens the family." Madara growled.

"He met her at school though, I don't think he knew she was connected to us. We took her to the gallery with us that night, he didn't know she would be there. His first attempt was too sloppy, it was almost like he hadn't planned it, it was...impulsive." Obito said scratching his chin. He hadn't had time to shave.

"I agree ." Said Fugaku, hand thrown wide encompassing the note and the painting. "Clearly a lot of thought and planning went into this, he had to have been watching her house to know they had left to go to the store. This was well thought out, unlike the attempted kidnapping at the gallery."

"The address, on the envelope. He addressed it to her like she was part of his family, he wrote it like she was his wife." Madara's teeth hurt. He had been clenching them since he had gotten the call from Shisui earlier.

"She must marry. Itachi." Mikoto spoke. "If she is no longer available, he may lose interest in her. Making her an official Uchiha and the future matriarch of our clan, maybe he will let it be. Right now she is single, clanless, and even though she has ties to many people in high places, she is not herself an heiress or of any political or military importance. Linking her to us by marriage and not just any marriage but to Itachi our eldest son might be the only way."

"He is still a dead man," Madara growled.

"I am counting on it." Mikoto looked him dead in the eye. "An Uchiha must be the one to kill him, don't let anyone else get there before us, we have our pride to protect."

All the Uchiha men around her nodded.

Upstairs….

"Ita, I'm sorry." Sakura still clung to Itachi shaking. "When I close my eyes all I can see is that horrible painting, how could he, I didn't want to believe it was true. He seemed so normal, so I don't know, not crazy?"

"Sasori of the Red Sand is anything but normal but I swear, he will not touch you. I am going to make sure of it. I will protect you with my life." Itachi kissed the top of her head and she pulled back a little, her arms still around his waist, tilted her head back to look at him.

"You don't know what that means to me, this is so messed up, it's like it isn't real. I feel like I'm floating. Like I can't stay fixed to the ground, it is...scary."

Itachi watched her face as she talked, worry was written there, fear and terror. He kissed her lips and held her with one hand and another ran up her neck to the back of her head, gently moving her head to the side so he could kiss her more firmly. "If you feel like you are floating and can not ground yourself, hold on to me. I promise to never let you go. Sakura, I...I know you don't think of me as, like that but, you gave me the bracelet back and I …" he was floundering.

She took his chin in her hand and kissed him, tilting his head down while she tilted hers up. "I knew what the bracelet meant, I lied."

"What?" he said surprised.

"I took the bracelet knowing what it was, knowing what it meant to accept it." She admitted and blushed. "I left it in the fort because I wanted it to be there when I was ready. I thought...you never really tried after that, you were the same, we never grew any more than friends or closer than a brother or sister, I thought, maybe you changed your mind, so I gave it back to you."

"You knew? What about Sasuke? You dated my little brother." He was looking at her a bit hurt.

"Yes." She chewed her lip. "I love you. I have since we were kids, but you, you never showed any interest in me after that, I thought, I thought you changed your mind."

He kissed her then, full and passionately. He broke the kiss to reach into his shirt and pulled out the ornate wooden box.

"I never changed my mind, I'm sorry. It was my fault, Sasuke was my fault." He said, guilt written all over his face.

"You kept it on you?" Her eyes went wide.

"I kept it close to my heart like you are." He opened the box and took the bracelet out, undoing the clasp and holding it out in front of her, questioning her with his eyes.

Sakura lifted her hand and held her wrist over the bracelet and Itachi closed the clasp and kissed her again. "I promise, I will protect you, love you, I promise."

" Ita, I love you," Sakura whispered into his lips.

'Soooooooo, someone didn't come back downstairs last night." Shisui grinned at Itachi over the breakfast table the next morning.

Sakura blushed and refused to meet anyone's eye.

"Shisui pass the eggs darling." Mikoto told him, " and leave your cousin alone, they just got officially engaged."

"What?" Madara looked up from his bacon.

Everyone had stayed the night at Sakura's house.

"I proposed last night and she said yes," Itachi told the table and smiled a little smile.

"Congratulations!" Shisui clapped him hard on the back making him drop the egg off his fork and into his lap. Itachi picked the egg up and threw it on Shisui's plate.

"Thank you."

"It's about damn time." Fugaku smiled at them, "Welcome to the family officially dear." He got up and hugged Sakura.

"Publicly, It needs to be made public, put an announcement in the papers, don't wait for the usual two weeks, make it official today." He told Obito and Obito left the room presumably to do just that.

"We will have an engagement party, a huge publicized one, one to make the front page," Mikoto said eyes bright with planning.

"I can make sure it gets into the papers!" Shisui said with an evil grin.

"That's actually a good idea." Said Madara, " no damage to public property though Shisui."

Shisui saluted and left the table.

"Um, are you sure that's a good idea Madara, I mean subtle isn't exactly in Shisui's vocabulary." She giggled.

"That's what we need, we need all five nations to know that the heir to the Uchiha clan is getting married. Mikoto have a guest list made and I will add all the politicians later, this will be the biggest wedding the Land of Fire has ever seen." Madara got up and hugged Sakura again and left.

Sakura smiled over the table at Itachi. She hadn't been this happy in weeks. Mikoto smiled at Sakura and her eldest son. "I am so happy right now, so proud."

Fugaku got up from the table, "So, who wants to tell Sasuke?"

'I will father." Itachi said.

"Be nice about it, he will understand eventually." Fugaku patted Itachi on the shoulder and smiled at Sakura again on the way into the kitchen.

"Why don't you let me clear this up, you two go on back upstairs and rest.' She smiled a knowing smile and pushed them out of the room.

Itachi took Sakura's hand and they walked back up the stairs together. Mikoto watched them from the hallway smiling. "You deserve to be happy Itachi, this is good for all of us." and she went into the kitchen to join her husband.

One week later…..

Blood dripped from his one hand as he held up the paper with the other. Sakura and Itachi looked out at him smiling from the photo in the Society section of the newspaper for announcements. He dropped the scraping knife from his bloodied hand, it fell to the floor in his studio with a clatter, drops of blood flew off of it onto the floor on impact. She was getting married to the heir of the Uchiha clan…no, he would not let that happen.

He walked downstairs taking an ancient collectors katana from the wall on his way to the smaller bedroom. He kicked the door open surprising the young girl on the bed. "Sakura, you have betrayed me." Sasori swung the sword in a graceful arc and cut her through the middle, he swung it back, flipping the hilt in his hand and swung it up cutting across her face.

"My last Doll." He dropped the sword by the bed and walked out of the room. "Sakura, you always make me feel so impulsive. I didn't want to have to do that."

The next morning…..

Fugaku was at the table eating breakfast with his wife and his youngest son when he got the call.

"Chief, another doll, only no lines attached, and she is cut up pretty badly, used um roughly too." A voice spoke over his phone.

"How do you know it is Sasori then if it doesn't fit the MO?" Fugaku asked.

"He left his card. We're waiting for you at 5th and Main." The voice said and then the call ended.

"I have to go." Fugaku put his fork down. "Sasori killed another girl and it is different than the others, he is angry, he left his card. He wants us to know it was him and that he is pissed." Fugaku left dialing his phone as he went.

"Sasuke, go tell Itachi and Sakura to come to the house for a time, I want us all in one place," Mikoto told her youngest son.

Sasuke got up and left.


	8. Chapter 8

The girl was sitting on a park bench, formal kimono cut in the front, blood drenching the fabric no longer red but black. The cut across her face making her unrecognizable. Pink dyed hair clearly visible and tangled, cut in the same style as Sakura's. A wedding ring on the finger of her left hand engraved with a scorpion, a note clasped in her other hand. She was fixed to the bench by an ancient sword with the Akasuna crest on it, stabbed through the chest into the wood of the bench so she didn't fall over.

The note read: You attempt to steal what is mine. I will take one of yours. Sakura belongs to me. Itachi is not worthy of her. You have angered me with your insufferable interference. Be warned Uchiha. I am coming for her.

"I want Sakura under high risk surveillance at all times 24/7, three man team understood?" Madara growled as he looked at the dead girl on the bench. That sick mother fucker, he was going to fucking pay.

Sakura frowned at the piece of paper in front of her. It was the guest list to her wedding. She didn't recognize half of the names on the list, most of them were from the other nations, politicians and clan leaders. Minato was invited, so was Kushina...sparks were going to fly. She laughed a little remembering her phone conversation yesterday with Naruto.

"Naruto, it's Sakura."

"Hey, Kura!, what's up?"

"I'm getting married."

"No way! To who!"

"Itachi Uchiha."

"Sasuke's older brother!"

"Yeah him."

"Are you insane!"

"I don't think so."

"That's insane Kura!"

"Is it?"

"I'll be there for sure but um How is Sasuke taking it?"

"He understands."

"Okay, if you say so, send me an invite. Can I bring my dad?"

"Uh sure but I already invited your mom."

"I promise that they won't make a scene."

"Have you met your mom Naruto?"

"I'll make sure my dad doesn't stay long, but he will want to come, he talks about you all the time."

"That's weird Naruto. Maybe he shouldn't come."

"He'll come! Send us the invite"

"Okay."

"Click…."

"Did you just hang up on me?... click"

Sakura didn't have to do much, she let Mikoto have free reign over the whole planning and deciding. She did, however, want to pick out her dress. Mikoto, Ino and Sakura were in an upscale wedding boutique in downtown Konoha trying on dresses. It was supposed to be fun. It was supposed to be a once in a lifetime experience. Sakura was going to kill Ino if she didn't shut the hell up.

"You can't like that one, it makes you look like a fat mermaid! Geeze forehead, I thought you wanted to look good for your "hero". " The blonde said as she frowned at Sakura.

The next dress….

"Ugh! What is that a topping for a cupcake, too much meringue."

Next…

"Seriously Sakura, are you 12 years old, you look like some demented fairy princess on the way to sit on a pumpkin."

What the hell does that even mean?

Last dress…

"You really suck at this don't you, I'm going back out there with Mikoto and picking one out for you and you're going to try it on and like it.

Sakura went back into her dressing room. It was one of those big fancy ones that can fit three people. There was a chaise lounge on the side and two fluffy chairs with a small table in between with champagne glasses on it. Only one had champagne in it though, barely touched. Sakura liked champagne but her stomach was all fluttery today. She went back to look at herself in the mirror. She liked the dress she was wearing. It sort of reminded her of the one Mikoto had picked out for her the night of the gallery.

It had dark royal blue paneling on the sides, white trimmed lace overlapping the front and a wide fluffy shimmering underskirt that peeped out at the bottom. Her chest and torso were wrapped in the royal blue silk, tight around her waist and then tapered down the back. Sakura looked down and smoothed the front and the sides of the dress feeling nothing less than elegant.

She smiled and lifted her head up to look at herself in the mirror again and green eyes met amber. She whirled around on the little podium to face him. He was sitting comfortably on the chaise against the wall, her champagne glass in his hand watching her. He smiled and rose from the chaise and walked toward her. She gasped and took an automatic step back forgetting she was on a podium and started to fall. He caught her before she could hit the ground and covered her face with a mask. It smelled sickly sweet. Poison, her brain told her. She tried to hold her breath but couldn't, she sucked air into her lungs and fainted.

He held her in his arms kissing her bare shoulder, "My beautiful doll, let's go home." and he carried her out of the dressing room to the side door slipping out of the building right under Mikoto and Ino's noses.

The limousine was waiting for him at the side door and the chauffeur opened the door for Sasori as he climbed in the back with Sakura in his arms. "Has the runt been taken care of?" Sasori asked his driver as he settled Sakura closer and more firmly on his lap.

"Yes sir, he is in the trunk. The other two tails have been disposed of as well, sir."

"Excellent, thank you, Kabuto." Sasori smiled.

"It was a pleasure sir." and they drove away from the store, away from Ino and Mikoto who were calling out Sakura's name frantically running back and forth in the store.

Madara got the call at midday, he had just sat down at his desk with the Sasori folder when his phone rang. The voice spoke, explained,and apologized.

"Where is Sasuke?" Madara spoke low and dangerously.

"Gone, no trace." The voice said. "We don't know for sure, we think there may have been a struggle. We found a cloth with an inhalant on it behind the store. It may have been used on one of them or both. He left his card. It is Sasori, he has her."

"Shit." Madara hung up the phone and started calling everyone he knew that could help.

Itachi was sitting on the couch reading when they got home. Mikoto hugged Ino goodbye telling her she would let her know if she heard anything and went to find her son.

"Itachi." His mother started then paused.

He raised his head and looked at her, she looked terribly stressed, "Where is Sakura?" He asked her.

"Sasori took her from the dressing room, we don't know where she is." Mikoto didn't get a chance to say anything else before Itachi was on his feet heading for the door. She ran after him, "Your Uncle Madara and your Dad are out there looking for her right now. Didn't they call you?"

Itachi spun around to face his mother, "And you really think they will find her? They don't even know where the bastard lives! They won't find her till he dumps her body in the river!" He walked toward the garage, phone in hand.

"Kisame, it's me, meet me at the old place…..yeah….he took my wife…...I kinda need her for the wedding…call the others. Bye." Itachi tore out of the garage leaving it open.

Itachi took the back roads to the old Uchiha compound and drove up the drive from the back.

They were already there, two cars and a truck were in front of the old Main house.

Itachi got out of his truck and was met at the door by his old platoon. Kisame Hoshigaki, marine biologist and international weapons dealer. Deidara of Iwagakure, Explosives specialist. Hidan of Yugakure, One Badass Sadistic Mother Fucker.

"Thank you for coming. Akasuna no Sasori kidnapped my soon to be wife. I want to get her back. Will you help me?" Itachi nodded to each man in turn.

Hidan whistles, "Little shit has balls stealing your woman Uchiha, fuck yeah I'll help you, I hate that little punk, thinks he's better than everyone else."

"You don't even have to ask, I'm in." Kisame smiles a toothy grin at Itachi.

"Took your fiance? Right before the wedding yeah? Can I blow him up hey?" Deidara asked smiling.

"Yes, but I get to kill him," Itachi said.

"Of course! I'm in, you know I like to spread my art around! I'll blow this whole town up yeah!"

"Try not to blow too much up, I live in this town Deidara." Itachi smiled at his enthusiasm. It was nice to have them here to help him. "Thanks."

"So what's the plan, I assume you have one?" Kisame asked.

"Of course I do, you know me." Itachi motioned them into the main house of the old compound.

"That I do." Kisame smiled again and they went inside.

8 hours Later…

Kabuto pulled the limousine up in front of the old Akasuna mansion just outside of Suna. He walked around to the side door and opened it. Sasori stepped out with Sakura in his arms and climbed the wide staircase up to the front of the house, kabuto at his side. Kabuto unlocked and opened the door and Sasori walked inside.

"Take the dead weight to our room, I will see to my bride." Sasori turned to the main cathedral stairs of the mansion but stopped halfway there. "Make sure he is secured, he was part of Konoha's military special forces under his brother Uchiha Itachi, don't underestimate him."

Kabuto turned back to the front door to get Sasuke.

Sasori held Sakura tightly to his chest as he walked up the stairs to his room. Finally, he finally had her.

Grunting slightly, he laid her on his large bed smoothing down her dress and folded her hands in her lap. Her hair wasn't done up and it didn't match the dress she wore but he didn't mind. He would call someone and have it made up later. She whispered something in her sleep but he couldn't make it out. His fingers trembled as he stroked her cheek, he almost couldn't believe he finally had her in his bed. He twisted around to open a small drawer of the nightstand by the bed and pulled out a tiny vial of clear liquid. His palm began to sweat and he wiped it on his pants in disgust. He needed to change his clothes for her. The vial was set on the nightstand and he left her laying on their bed and went to the attached dressing room.

A small mini bar and sink sitting room separated their dressing rooms. He laid his overcoat on one of the chairs and opened the door to his dressing room turning on the light. She seemed to like the black suit he had worn to the Gallery that night so he pulled it out of the many that lined his racks.

As he finished buttoning the coat a maid walked in carrying three clothing boxes. She bowed to him, "For my Lady Akasuna." She said.

"Put them in her dressing room and call for a hairdresser please." He waved to Sakura who was still sleeping on their bed.

The maid cast a curious glance at Sakura and bowed. "My Lady Akasuna is very beautiful sir, I will call the hairdresser." and she left.

"Yes, very beautiful." Sasori walked back over to the bed and kissed her gently on her lips.

Kabuto was dragging Sasuke into the room making huffing noises. He dropped him on the ground and went to get a chair to sit him in. He was back in a moment with a padded chair with padded arms. It was deep and had a large framed back with cutouts that would be useful for tying the runt down. Kabuto heaved Sasuke's dead weight into the chair and pulled out multiple ropes from his belt. He tied Sasuke's arms to the padded armrests, one on each, his legs to the feet of the chair, also one on each, and then his neck and torso to the back of the chair so Sasuke couldn't try to kick the chair out to break the lines or move his head, he had to look straight forward...at the bed.

"I don't want him screaming and making too much noise while I am occupied with my wife, get the accessories and put them on a table next to the chair please." Sasori waved Kabuto away and turned back to Sakura. Yes, he thought, I will be very occupied tonight.

Old Uchiha Compound….

"This is the plate of the limousine from the store that was spotted outback, I need an address. This is his registration from the college he was attending all of his information is fake I'm sure but see if you can find a trail." Itachi throws the pad to Kisame.

"On it," Kisame says.

"Gather all the weapons and gear we will need for a 3-week long desert trek." He instructs Hidan.

"What? A fucking week in the desert are you fucking kidding me man, damn it no, I don't want to go now, this sucks balls man." Hidan starts to complain.

"You will deny my request ?" Itachi says quietly. "Are you not here because of me, do you not breath because I saved your life?" The room went quiet.

"Hey Itachi, man, I was just kidding ok, I'm sorry, ok?" Hidan ran a hand through his hair and smiled sheepishly.

Itachi ignored him and turned to Deidara. "Prepare enough for the 5th world war. I want everything, tags, formulas, traps, you name it."

Deidara's face lit up. "I got you covered yeah! You know it!" Deidara pumped his fist in the air. "Fuck yeah!"

Itachi pulled three large folders out from under the table that he had kept there.

"This is all the information on the Akasuna clan from the last 10 years, he pushed one folder into the center of the table. This is all the information on the serial killer and his kills that we now know was Sasori. He pushes it to the center of the table. This is all the information I personally tracked down about his most recent movements and whereabouts that I haven't told the force about yet as it also contains insight into the life of my future wife. I need not say this but I will. I am only letting you be privy to this because I know anything and everything might be important and it might be that one little detail that was overlooked that would have found her. I leave nothing to chance. We were the ones they called in when no one else would or could get the job done. I'm counting on you."

He pushed the third folder to join the others in the middle of the table.

The three men nodded to him.

"I need to go speak with my family, I will return as soon as I can. Read these folders front to back. I will return." and Itachi left for the main house in the current compound.

Kisame grabbed the first folder, Deidara the second and Hidan the third. Each opened theirs and started to read.


	9. Chapter 9

Sasuke's head hurt. He tried to lift his hand to his head but he couldn't. Why couldn't he, he thought. Eyes, I need to open my eyes. Damn, what was that? He looked down at his arms, they were tied? Sakura, his head snapped up. Ow. 'Sakura?"

Sasuke looked around the room as much as he was able, he saw her lying on the bed in a wedding dress. "Sakura!" he called out to her but she didn't move.

He could see that she wasn't tied up. They seemed to be in a big house or possibly a mansion. The decorations were old, ornate, expensive and unfamiliar. Sasuke looked out the only window in the room, it was multi paneled and reinforced glass, which was common for homes in...Suna.

"Shit." Sasuke started to pull on his restraints. His neck was tied back he couldn't move much. He felt a rope around his middle, he was tied to the back of the chair? His feet were obviously tied to the chair's legs. Damn. Think Sasuke think. "Sakura!" He shouted at her. She wasn't tied up, maybe she could untie him.

He heard footsteps approaching the door to the room, he tried to twist around to look at the door but couldn't. He heard the door open and shut, slow relaxed footsteps came up behind the chair he was tied to, "Good evening Uchiha." the low bored voice of Akasuna no Sasori drawled by his head.

"You, you fucker, let her go, my family is coming, she is my brother's intended, you have no idea what's coming for you," Sasuke said with more confidence than he felt.

"Let them come. We are in Suna, this is my land. Besides, I doubt they even know where to start looking." Sasori walked over to the bed and sat down beside Sakura.

"So beautiful, is she not? You dated for three years if my sources are correct, didn't you?" Sasori wasn't looking at Sasuke, he was running his fingers through Sakura's hair almost purring.

"If you hurt her if you do anything to her, you're dead, I'll kill you." Sasuke's cool was rapidly leaving him, he knew he needed to calm down, to think straight. He couldn't.

"Hurt her, no, I have no such design, I love her, here she will finally get the love and affection she deserves. You didn't appreciate her when you had her, you are a fool. You never saw her, not like I see her. She is a work of art, a living work of art. She is perfect for me." He leaned over her sleeping form and ran his lips over hers, brushing across them barely touching, his tongue flicked out across her bottom lip, she stirred and then settled as he leaned back and away from her again.

"Don't fucking touch her!" Sasuke was struggling against his restraints, the ropes cutting into his flesh.

"She will wake soon enough, and when she does," Sasori picks up the delicate vial of clear liquid from the nightstand, "you will get to see first hand what true art really is, it's love. I will show you what you missed, what you will never have, what was never yours. You have no idea how long I have waited for her and I am not a patient man. She is mine and no one will take her from me again." He set the vial back down on the nightstand got off the bed and walked out the door.

Sasuke's yelling could be heard all the way down the hallway and throughout the house but Sakura lay sleeping and never stirred.

6 Hours ago back in Konoha….

"My team and I are going to get Sakura back, Kisame, Hidan and Deidara have read the files on Sasori, his recent murders, his family's past and my own private investigations. We have an address that he used for his registration, Shisui and a squad are heading there now and will check back with me in no less than 3 hours. Kisame, Hidan and I are headed to Suna where I believe he has taken up residence in his old family home. My sources tell me there has been recent activity there that had been absent in the last decade. We leave within the hour." Itachi briefed Madara and Fugaku in the main house of the current Uchiha compound.

"You will need a backup, we will send two squads to Suna with you." Fugaku began but was cut off by Madara.

"No, they won't make it through the desert. Akasuna knows that, which is why he chose the desert. Itachi is right a four man squad on foot is best." Madara nodded to Itachi.

"But that will take them days! That's when they get to the border, it will take 3 days to cross the desert if they go non stop, 5 if they take breaks! She could be dead by then, and if not her Sasuke!" Fugaku protested.

"You still don't understand do you father...Sasori of the Red Sand will not kill her. He thinks he is in love with her. An obsession, no doubt, but he still thinks he is in love with her, he will want to win her over. He is intelligent enough in his insanity to know he can not force her to love him. He kidnapped her to woo her. He will not kill her, yet." Itachi spoke in a controlled professional manner.

"The boy is right, but we still need to move, which is why Itachi and his team will move first, we will send two squads to tail them at a great distance, they will be back up but are not to follow close and not to engage." Madara inclined his head to Itachi at the other's nod.

"What if you are wrong Itachi, what if they aren't in Suna?" Fugaku asks his eldest.

"They are in Suna. I am positive." Itachi says. "If that is all, I will go, my team leaves within the hour." Both men nod to him and he turns and walks out the door. Sakura, please wait for me, don't do anything stupid, I'm coming for you, I promised you, I will come for you. He closed his eyes and chanted this in his head as he walked out of the main house and head to the old compound.

1 hour later at Sasori's studio apartment in the next town over…..

Shisui grimaced as he looked at the wall with picture after picture of Sakura. Pictures of her reading by a tree on her college campus, pictures of her in her apartment feeding her cat, pictures of her face, her hands, her legs. Shisui felt sick to his stomach. He had seen many disgusting horrifying things in his line of work, but war is different, espionage and assassination is different...this was personal.

"Sir, we found something you might want to look at." One of his men told him and handed him a thick file.

Shisui opened it and almost dropped it. With wide eyes, he turned page after page, sifted through file after file of Sakura's medical records, her report cards, pictures of her since she was 5 years old, pictures of her at age 8, 10, 14, it was her life in a folder.

"Sir." another member of his squad was holding a box. Shisui took it and opened it, there were little clay figures in it. Drawings. Paintings. Notes to friends, all done by Sakura through the years. The more Shisui looked the more sick he felt. He pulled out his phone and called Itachi.

"Itachi, I'm at the address you gave me. It is worse, so much worse than we thought. He has been following her for years since she was 5 years old from the records and pictures we have found so far. He has her whole life in folders and boxes, he has been stalking her for the last fourteen or fifteen years." Shisui told him.

"Shit. Stay there, I'm coming." Itachi hung up the phone.

"Change of plans, we are making another stop before Suna," Itachi told his platoon. He grit his teeth. How did this escape his notice, if anything happened to her, he would never forgive himself. He spun the SUV around and headed for the studio apartment where Shisui and his squad were. He needed to tell Madara. He flipped his phone open and made the call.

Shisui was waiting for him by the door when they arrived. Itachi followed him into the studio and ignored the walls for the folder and box that was spread out in front of him.

"How is this possible cousin, Sasori is only a few years older than her, he is our age, he would have had to have been nine or ten when he started following her, even for a genius, I can't see him being able to do such a thing." Shisui's brow was furrowed with concern and confusion.

"Akasuna no Sasori is not as young as he may look, but I don't have time to go into that right now.' Itachi said as he flipped pages over from the folder and sorted through items in the box."He is, however, a genius." Itachi was now examining a clay sculpture Sakura had made when she was 8.

"She used to complain to Sasuke and Naruto, she would cry that someone had stolen her artwork, that it was missing and she couldn't find it. She used to get grounded because she didn't bring home her report cards, or get in trouble when her homework projects went missing." Itachi held up a book report from her 8th-grade writing class.

"Her fingerprints are embedded in the clay." Itachi turned over the clay sculpture he had been looking at before. "The bastard has been tracking her, her whole life. In these pictures, she was 13 sleeping in her bed. This picture wasn't taken from a window or outside. He was in her room, you can tell he is leaning on her dresser." He picked up another picture of Sakura at 18, just last year.

"This is her moving into her apartment, right before her semester started. Hand me the records of this studio's lease." He tells Kisame and a few papers are put into his hands, he scans them,

"He took a lease on this apartment two days before her. He knew she was going to move here and he wanted to be close to her."

"That's fucked up yeah," Deidara said.

"Yea." agreed Kisame.

"Well, what are we waiting for, let's go kill the fucker." Hidan didn't understand why they were just standing around but he knew Itachi was thinking and would have a plan soon, he always did.

Itachi put the papers down on the table and walked over to the wall. He scanned over all the pictures of Sakura and his eyes froze. He plucked a picture off the wall. It was him and Sakura, they were in her house in Konoha, it had been taken only a few days ago. She was watching him make dinner, there was a look of trust and longing in her eyes but also...desire. Itachi flips the picture over and it read: She will look at me like this, soon, and the Uchiha will all be forgotten, all of them will be dead to her, not even a memory.

Itachi walked to the other wall, picture still in hand. "Shisui have you looked on the back of the pictures?"

"No, not yet we were looking through the box and folders and seeing if there were any other similar things hidden around the place," he answered.

"Madara and my father will be here soon, I want you to stay and look through everything. Call me if you find anything new. I have to get to her as quickly as possible. Akasuna are known for their unprecedented knowledge of poisons and elixirs...he said soon she would forget all the Uchiha...I don't think he means after time she will forget because he is going to try to kill all of us. I think he is going to try to erase her memory." Itachi looked one more time at the picture in his hand, folded it and put it in his pocket.

"I'm not going to let him do that to her. Let's move." He called to his platoon, and they left.


	10. Chapter 10

Sasuke tried but he couldn't get out of the ropes that tied him to the chair. His skin around the ropes was rubbed raw, he had to get to Sakura, he had to get them out of here and if he did then what? they were in the fucking desert. Well, he would have to think of that after he got out of the ropes if he got out of the ropes.

Sakura started to moan and grumble on the bed. Sasuke watched as her fingers twitched. He didn't know if he should call out to her or not. Sasori said she would be waking soon so presumably, he would be back to check on them eventually. Her hand moved to her head and she groaned again.

"Sakura, hey Sakura" Sasuke tried to call her quietly.

"Sasuke?" Her eyes opened and she tried to sit up but couldn't. It seemed whatever drug Sasori had used was strong and not completely out of her system yet. "Sasuke, where are we?" she asked her voice low and pushed, It seemed she was having a hard time talking.

Sasuke heard the footsteps, they were quicker this time as they came to the door and paused just outside.

"Sasuke," Sakura called him "Help me sit up please"

The door opened then and Sasori entered the bedroom. "Goodevening Sakura." he walked over to the bed, picked up the clear vial of liquid from the nightstand and sat down on the bed beside her.

"Don't fucking touch her!" Sasuke yelled, and as though he were outside waiting for that moment Kabuto came into the room and pulled the gag out of a box by the chair he had set earlier and gagged Sasuke. He left as quickly as he had come into the room, closing the door behind him.

"Tsk tsk." Sasori taunted Sasuke from the bed where Sakura was still fading in and out of consciousness. " Behave Uchiha and this could be a very pleasant evening for all of us, if not, not only will you suffer, so will Sakura." He ran a finger down her arm and looked back over his shoulder at Sasuke who was glaring at him with hate in his eyes.

"Now if you will please excuse me I have a date. You are more than welcome to watch, in fact, I don't see how you can't watch." Sasori turns his attention back to Sakura laughing under his breath.

"Sakura, wake up now, you're home, in Suna. Wake up, doll." He lets go of her hand and caresses her face.

"How much farther?" Itachi asks Kisame.

"48 hours non stop sir." Kisame squints at the dials of his SUV.

"Take shifts, Kisame, me, Deidara and Hidan last. Sleep if you're not on shift, scout duty if you can't sleep." Itachi climbs into the back and switches places with Deidara. He leans his head back and tries to sleep. Two days Sakura, hold on he says to her in his head, I'm coming I promise.

"Madara, he is crazier than we thought." Fugaku and Madara stare at the walls of Sasori's old studio apartment.

"No, not crazy, he is a genius." Madara turns to the box and the folder Shisui showed Itachi and his team earlier, "He has been planning this since he was what, 14 years old?" Madara picks up a painting Sakura did in 6th grade of a pyramid. "How did they even meet?"

"Did they meet? He might have just seen her one day, she has pink hair and green eyes, she does stand out, she always has." Fugaku countered.

"I can answer that." Shisui handed them a letter, "Sakura wrote this to Ino when she was 5."

Letter: Dear my bestest friend ever Ino,

I met the most wonderful boy today, he might be cuter than Sasuke! He has the coolest red hair, it is the color of fresh blood! I know because he hurt himself in the park and there was a lot of blood that came out of his knee. I took my sweater and ripped it up to fix him. I wrapped it all around his knee like in the movies when a girl saves the man she is supposed to marry. Maybe I will marry him one day if Sasuke marries someone else. His name is Sasori. Isn't it such a cool name? Anyway, I think I am in love.

Love your bestest friend in the whole world,

Sakura

"So they did meet, and she wrote this letter when she was 5." Fugaku read the letter again.

"He has been obsessing over it. Shisui takes a picture of that and text it to Itachi with an explanation." Madara instructed.

"Why though she was 5 years old, this letter, it means nothing, he was a 14 teenager, surely this was just silliness to him." Fugaku had read the letter twice and was frowning at it shaking his head.

"You don't understand, Sakura even at 5 years old was like a bright ball of friendly sunshine. For a boy whose father only cares about money and building his empire, who only spent time with him so his own legacy would live on after he died, it was like a drowning person taking that first breath when they reach the surface again. I think, she breathed life back into a broken soul. I have studied their family, I knew his father, he was a cold cold man. There was no love in his heart. My sources reported he never hugged the boy, never talked to him like a person, he used him as a tool, trained him as a killer from the age of 5. Sasori was sent out on his first assassin mission at age 7, he killed 3 adults and 2 children in cold blood without flinching." Madara shook his head.

"So, if your world is only darkness and you see a light, you do whatever you can to get to it, and if you catch it, you don't let it go." Shisui looked sick again.

"This is a nightmare, none of us would have even considered this, we thought it was human trafficking, then stalking but this? I almost can't even wrap my head around it." Fugaku looked at Madara. "What now?"

Madara thought for a moment, "He has to know we're coming. He knows as much about us as we know about him. He is arrogant though, he took her and Sasuke because he doesn't think we will be able to find him."

Shisui laughed, "He might know us but he doesn't know Itachi, or his friends." and they all grinned.

"Sasori, what, what are you doing?" Sakura is trying to keep her eyes open but it is very hard. She tries to hold her head up but it keeps falling back. "Sasori, where am I?"

"You're home with me, we're home together." he leans forward and kisses her on her lips lightly running his fingers through her hair with one hand.

She pulls away from him, her hands on his chest.

Sasuke yells through the gag making it come out as a muffled grunt. He can't move at all!

Sakura's eyes open, "Sasuke?"

"What's going on, why is he tied to that chair Sasori?" Sakura started to move to the edge of the bed to get up and help Sasuke.

"Please Sakura, let me explain." Sasori walked to the door of the room and rang a small bell, Kabuto appeared a moment later.

"Tea, and one for our guest," Sasori commanded.

"Yes, Sir." Kabuto left the room.

"Sakura, I kidnapped you but I have a good reason. I was worried about you." He spoke carefully.

"You kidnapped me, you admit you kidnapped me?" Her head hurt but she was starting to wake up a bit more.

"Yes, I did it to protect you. The Uchiha are not who you think they are. They are terribly corrupt people, they murdered my uncle, they locked my father away unjustly. You must listen to me" He told her.

Kabuto came in with the tea cart, rolling it up next to Sasori. "Pink for the lady and your usual sir."

Sasori waved him away. Kabuto stepped over to Sasuke with a syringe tapping out the air bubbles., stuck it in his arm and pushed down the plunger. He removed the gag from Sasuke's mouth then left.

"What, what is he doing, stop!" Sakura tried to stand but fell back down, her legs were still weak.

"Not to worry dear." Sasori put a hand on her arm. "A truth serum, only."

"But." Sakura began.

"Don't you understand what I risk doing this. I had to tell you, I couldn't let them ruin another life." He had to remain calm.

"What do you care, I don't even know you. We have had one class together." She lifted the teacup to her lips and took a small sip. The heat felt good, it was relaxing, she took a few more sips and sighed.

Sasori watched her drink her tea and smiled.

"I know you. You have forgotten me it seems. It is to be expected, it meant more to me than it did to you." He smiled ruefully.

"What meant more to me?" She set her now empty teacup on the cart.

"The park, I fell in the park in Konoha and you ripped your sweater apart to bandage me up." He took a sip of his own tea and filled her cup back up. He placed the cup in her hands before he continued.

"My mother was gone, she died. My father was, strict, not the loving kind. He wanted me to carry on the family business. I am sure you know by now what my family does. We are arms dealers. Drug traffickers, but not how you are thinking, by the look on your face. A necessary evil my dear. Your small gesture of kindness meant everything to me. I didn't have friends due to my father's profession. I was an only child. You were the only person that had ever been kind to me. I fell in love with you that day, watched over you, protected you. Even if you didn't know I was always with you." Sasori took a sip of his tea

"As for my family, we buy and sell drugs, manufacture and dispense them to countries without healthcare, without a means to make and dispense their own to keep their populations healthy. We acquire, produce and sell arms to smaller countries to protect their borders from bigger ones taking them over and controlling the native population. We protect those who can not protect themselves." He paused and let that information sink in.

Sakura bit her lip, "The Uchiha have always been good to be. I'm sorry about your dad, I'm not sure what happened with that but."

"Madara Uchiha hunted him down like a dog! For 25 years he hunted my father, taking one country at a time out from under his protection till none would shelter him! He stripped our family of their influence, wealth and connections till we were nothing!" His heartbeat furiously in his chest. He was scaring her, he had to relax.

"Forgive me. I, it is upsetting to me. Getting angry will only cast doubt upon my words." He said calmly.

"The boy will help verify my claims." Sasori turned to Sasuke. "Tell her boy, tell her what your family is."

"Get away from her you psychopath! You want to talk about the truth, tell her about all the women you killed!" Sasuke yelled.

"Ah yes, I was impatient," Sasori admitted.

"You, you really killed those girls?" Sakura covered her hand with her mouth, eyes wide.

"Yes. They were not you, only substitutes. They meant nothing to me. No one could replace you Sakura." Sasori smiled at her.

"You're insane, you're really insane, she won't love you now, you think she would ever want you? You just admitted that you killed them, that you have been obsessing over her!" Sasuke didn't understand what was happening, if he was trying to convince her, trying to make her love him he was doing a terrible job of it.

"I am very sane, more than you. Is logic not sanity?" Sasori looked at Sasuke with contempt.

"Why am I here, why are we here?" She looked from Sasuke to Sasori.

"I told you. You are here to hear the truth." He turned to face Sasuke. "Uchiha, tell her what your uncle does. Does he not deal with arms as well?"

"Yes," Sasuke said before he could stop himself.

"And Itachi, your brother, is he not part of the special forces in the Fire Country military that infiltrates and assassinates other world leaders?" Sasori continued.

"Yes but." Sasuke protested, or tried to.

"And once said leaders are gone are they not replaced by members of the Fire countries high council, Uchiha high council member?" Sasori concluded.

"They are but," Sasuke said weakly.

"You see my dear, the Uchiha are trying to take over the world." Sasori poured her more tea.

"But." She shook her head. "They couldn't possibly." She looked at Sasuke. He was looking at the floor and wouldn't meet her eyes.

"No." She said.

"Sasuke, is it true?" She frowned.

Sasuke looked up at her, "We aren't trying to take over the world in a sinister world domination sort of way, we want to protect it."

"They sell the guns to the bigger nations and let them take out the little ones, then their stronger army or special Ops team, his brother's team, your fiance, goes in and assassinates the leaders of the country, military, and noble families, then they place Uchiha high council members of the Fire Nation in charge. I call that world domination. One by one the smaller nations are falling. Soon it will only be three. Fire, Earth and Wind." Sasori was watching her.

She didn't say anything right away, she was thinking about what he said. Realization came over her. She remembered the little things, conversations she had heard over the years, Madara showing up late with a spot of blood on his shirt and having to go change, phone calls cut short in her presence. Mounds of fresh dirt appearing overnight on the old compound grounds. The family gathered around the news at night making comments she didn't understand but did now.

"Sasuke, why did the Uchiha compound move? Why didn't your family just renovate the older buildings as deeply engrossed in tradition and history as your family is, it never did make sense to me. Why build a whole new compound?" She looked at her friend tied to the chair in front of her.

"Why indeed." Sasori smiled.

"I don't know for sure, Madara only said it had been compromised. Too much waste." He looked at her and grit his teeth.

"We have a hand in many things Sakura, but we are nothing compared to him and his father, nothing! You saw those girls, you saw what he did to them, do you think you are going to fare any better. He will kill you after he is done with you!"

"So, it's true, your family assassinates world leaders to take over their countries? Is that where Kagami is? Is that why he left Fire two years ago, to become one of the leaders of a country you took over?" She could stand now and did.

"What countries Sasuke? Which ones does your family have a hand in a representative of the clan in charge, in power?"

"Sound, Rain, Frost, Cloud, and lightning." He grit his teeth again, he hadn't meant to answer her.

She gasped. "Shisui and Itachi's trip to Lightning last year."

Sasuke nodded.

"They said the death of the Raikage was an accident, a hunting trip gone bad." She sat back down and took a sip of her tea.

"He was assassinated, by Itachi Uchiha." Sasori hummed.

She was listening. She would understand why he had done this, that he had done it for her.

"Sakura, please, listen to me. Madara, he just wanted to protect the family, unite the nations under one flag." Sasuke tried.

"You mean under one crest, the Uchiha clan crest?" She looked into his eyes and saw the truth.

"Konoha was taken from us by the Senju, they took power over all the major decisions, they pushed us to the corner of the village, their names went down in history as the golden clan of Konoha, while ours faded into the back under a single paragraph in the history books!" Sasuke said heatedly.

"We are doing this for the good of the whole world!" He wanted desperately for her to understand.

"Peace through murder? You will bloody all resistance and call the wreckage peace?' She couldn't believe what she was hearing.

"Clever girl, so clever, I knew you would understand." Sasori watched their interaction.

Sakura ignored him.

Sakura had known that the Uchiha controlled the police of Konoha and the special forces of the Fire Country, she didn't know it went this far. She had never asked how she got moved to the front of the line on the classes she applied for, or how the leasing office for the apartment she had wanted had called her the next day after turning her down. The car loan she had applied for three years ago had miraculously gone through with the lowest rates...all because she was considered "Family".

"Sasuke." She said looking up to her friend, her friend she had known all her life, her ex-boyfriend, her best friend, her first lover.

"I am a fool." She said quietly.

"No, you're not. You are trusting, but you have trusted the wrong people." Sasori spoke softly.

"You, you are no better. You killed, tortured those girls, your family may do it for the right reasons but you sell illegal arms and drugs. What is the difference, production, value, status? No, Sasori, you are the same as the Uchiha." She put her teacup down.

"I don't want to have anything to do with either one of you. I'm leaving." She stood up and went to walk to the door.

Sasori sighed. "I tried to do it the easy way."

He withdrew a spring loaded shot from under the napkin on the tea tray and stuck her with it.

"What the." She collapsed half on half off the bed.

Sasori rolled the tea cart aside and lifted her fully onto the bed in a more comfortable position and pulled a small blanket over her.

Turning to Sasuke, "You have served your purpose."

He took another shot from the tray and stuck it into Sasuke's arm.

"Fuck you," Sasuke said as his eyes closed and he slumped in the chair.

"Yes yes, all that and more I'm sure." Sasori rang a bell by the door.

"Yes, Sir." Kabuto's head popped into the room.

"Take him away. Don't kill him just yet, I haven't won her over completely he may still be of some use." Sasori sighed.

"Yes, Sir." Kabuto cut the ties that bound Sasuke to the chair and threw him over his shoulder.

"I will be back with a fresh pot of tea and additives Sir." Kabuto bowed as much as one can with an unconscious person over their shoulder and left.

"The memory ones!" Sasori called after him.


	11. Chapter 11

Itachi scanned the desert ahead of them. They had just left the confines of the forest, only a few trees here and there remained, the rest was endless sand for miles.

"ETA," Itachi asked for forms sake every 3 hours.

"24 - 32 Hrs sir. As you know, sand is unpredictable, but we are making good time." Kisame responded quickly.

Itachi nodded. His phone buzzed…

"Moshi Moshi,'' "No, Shisui are you sure, absolutely sure?", "How can he control something like that?", "Damn, he is certainly clever, much more than I thought...this is beyond anything we have ever faced. I want you to contact Tsunade Senju see if you can find out more on this parasite.", "I don't care, do whatever you have to do, she was her apprentice once, and planned on being her apprentice again, she will help us, for Sakura's sake."

Itachi hung up the phone and rubbed his temples. His head hadn't stopped hurting since yesterday. This was far worse than any poison or elixir.

"What is it?" Kisame asked him quietly.

"Sasori has a Master's Degree in Microbiology. Shisui found a folder with detailed research notes on an amoeba called, The Amoeba of Madness. It eats brain matter, human brain matter. He found the folder with Sasori's collection of Sakura's life. He is contacting Tsunade Senju to get more information on this Amoeba and it's possible uses." Itachi told him.

"Shit," Kisame said never taking his eyes off the receding road in front of them.

"Hn."

"We should hoof it from here." Kisame threw it in park and cut the engine.

"Hn."

Sasori sorted through the little collection of vials in the drawer of the nightstand. He pulled out two more and set them by the clear one he had shown Sasuke earlier. He had waited so long to have her here with him, now that she was here, he was in no hurry, he had plenty of time.

He had watched her nearly all her life, he knew what kind of a person she was. He knew he had to win her heart, and he would with a little help from some of the most brilliant elixirs and poisons he had ever created. Yes, he produced and marketed a few of his more deadly poisons to aide the countries under his protection but these, these were just for him, him and Sakura. Sasori gently fingered the glass of the last vial he had pulled out.

"Methodical Madness." He liked to call it. It was the most brilliant creation, so simple really, one just had to have the imagination and genius to manipulate and control it. Sasori had both.

He set the tiny vial back down on the nightstand with the others. First, the starter doses that Kabuto was getting ready for him, then the last vial.

"Sakura, soon, your only reality will be what I allow it to be, my living doll, my greatest work of art. My magnum opus." His hand ran down her cheek and neck stroking her soft skin.

"Sir. I have what you asked for, doses 1-10 are here." Kabuto waved a hand over a small wooden box with the Akasuna clan crest burned onto the lid. "And your tea of course. A new cup for the lady and your usual." Kabuto pushed the cart next to Sasori, bowed and left.

Sasori reached for the wooden box, ran his fingers over the crest and opened it. 10 fully prepared syringes lay neatly in blue velvet, ready for injection. He picked the first one up with care, he had waited so long for this, he took a deep breath and turned down the blanket covering Sakura.

"Dose one." He plunged the syringe into her wrist, into her vein and pressed down till it was empty. Looking to the clock on the wall he noted the time and wrote it on the empty syringe, placing it back into the wooden box.

Sakura didn't move, didn't make a sound, she lay peacefully on the bed blissfully unaware of the danger she was in.

Shisui turned photo after photo over in his hand reading the backs. Each photo back he read, the more disturbed he became. There were not only notes or facts about Sakura, her friends, her family, but about deals the Uchiha had made, people they had killed, nations they had taken over. Sasori knew everything...and Shisui knew Sakura knew nothing.

Shisui set down the last stack of photos. "He will use this against us, he will turn her against us." He had to call Itachi.

Itachi's phone rang…

"Shisui, what do you have?"

"Itachi, he knows about everything, the Uchiha plan, our agenda." Shisui's voice came through the phone laced with grim defeat.

"He will use it to turn her against us, you know what kind of a person she is, it's why we value her so much, it's why we never let her see that side of the family, this won't go over well." Shisui continued.

"She won't believe him like you said we kept her away from it all."

"She is smart Itachi...as smart as you. She will know a truth when she sees it." Shisui said.

"I never cared for my father's agenda, my uncle's.. It might not even be an issue depending on what we find out from Tsunade, any luck there?" Itachi asked.

"She said she would call me back, you know how that woman is, you never know how she will react, it's why we hate dealing with her, above and beyond the fact she is a Senju, she's frightening." Shisui laughed nervously.

"Keep on it, that is the priority, call me when you have something. Don't worry, Sakura will listen to me." Itachi hung up.

He gripped his phone in his hand. "Shit."

Itachi shoved his phone back in his pocket, he would have to deal with it later, right now he needed to focus. He brought the goggles down over his eyes and motioned for his team to move forward. It was at least a 24-hour hike through sand and heat, they couldn't waste any more time.

"One dose every half hour, only one more to go, my dear, you're doing so well." Sasori pet Sakura's hair.

It had been 5 and a half hours since the first dose. One more, then the two vials and the last full dose, at full strength, then, she was his, all his, forever.

Sasori stood up from his sitting position on the bed. He would go wash up and make ready for the last dose, things would move quickly after that and he wanted to be prepared.

He pulled his phone out of his pocket as he walked to their bathroom.

"Baki, any movement?"

"None Sir, all is well." Baki returned.

"Good, keep watch, do not underestimate Itachi Uchiha. I do not expect them to breach the manse, but they will come, be ready." Sasori hung up his phone and set it on the bathroom counter. He grabbed a towel from the golden rack and set it on the wooden bench inside the shower main. Turning the taps on he removed his clothing, ignoring several scars that ran up the side of his chest over heart, and stepped under the spray of warm water closing his eyes.

"Sakura." He hummed as he ran his hands down his sides gripping the hard shaft between his legs pumping it twice. "Soon doll, soon."

He reached for the shampoo bottle and started to wash, unaware of the green eyes that had fluttered open in the other room.

Tsunade slammed her fist down onto her desk in her office for the fifth time in ten minutes, "Damn fucking Uchiha!" She screamed for the fifth time in ten minutes.

She thought they kept Sakura out of their sick little agenda, she thought her apprentice was safe! Damn it, she paced back and forth, glancing at her computer every other footfall. This was worse than she could have ever imagined.

"What the fuck did they get her caught up in !" She screamed and grabbed her phone.

"Hashirama! Come to the hospital now, I need to speak with you, bring Tobirama, have him ready his men, you are taking a trip into the desert, now!" She slammed the phone down.

"I need a fucking drink."

She picked up a small framed picture off of her desk. Pink hair mixed with blonde as they posed for the picture together. It had been the second week of Sakura's apprenticeship, it had been the day when Tsunade had finally found the one to bequeath all her knowledge to, the day she had found her one true apprentice worthy of all her medical secrets.

"Damn all Uchiha!" She screamed into the air.

Hashirama bit his lip and called his brother.

"Tsuna wants to see us in her office at the hospital, it sounds like an emergency, meet me there, oh, she said to ready your men, we are going into the desert."

Hashirama grabbed his coat and keys and left his office.

Sasuke groaned. His head hurt, his legs hurt, his hands hurt. His face hurt, everything fucking hurt.

He slowly opened his eyes and blinked. Where was he? There wasn't anything in the room, just a chair, and he was sitting on it. He tried to stand but couldn't. His legs wouldn't work. There was no door he realized as he looked around.

"What the fuck?" He groaned. The sound of his own voice hurt his head. He closed his eyes again. Bliss.

Sasori stepped out of the shower and grabbed the towel he had laid out for himself. Running the towel over his body and hair he wrapped it around his waist. He checked the clock on the shelf and turned to the door, it was almost time for the last dose. He made his way out to the main part of the bedroom and froze.

Sakura was standing in the wedding dress by the window, the dim evening light shone through and made the sequins of the bodice glitter brilliantly.

"Sakura, you look like starlight." He made his way over to her.

"Sasori?" She looked confused.

"Yes, Sakura, it's me Sasori, you remember, don't you?" He came up behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist drawing her back against his chest.

"Yes, I remember, but where are we Sasori?" Her head was fuzzy, she couldn't remember why she was here much less where it was.

"We're home doll, we live here." He smiled into the crook of her neck running his lips over her bare shoulder.

"We live here?" She frowned. "But." She turned in his arms to face him.

"We just got married dear, you're my wife." He kissed her softly, slowly running his lips over hers, finding the right spot and pressing forward flicking his tongue over the part of her lips.

She opened for him and he smiled into her mouth, kissing her gently.

Slowly, her arms rose and she wrapped them around his neck, deepening the kiss between them.

He pulled away slowly, reluctantly, he had to give her the last dose so he could move onto the next phase.

"Come, dear, you need your medicine, I have it here for you." He took her by the hand and led her to the bed.

"I take medicine?" She tilted her head making her hair shift to the side.

So expressive he hummed to himself, her eyes are so telling, so innocent, so beautiful.

"For your migraines, don't you remember?" He faked a concerned inquisitiveness.

"No, I don't remember...anything really. I get migraines?" She asked him, the innocence shining in her eyes again.

"Yes, but this will help, I make the medicines you need, this won't hurt, remember?" He slid the syringe into her vein expertly, quickly and pushed down the small plunger, then removed the needle quickly putting it back into its wooden case.

"All done." He smiled at her.

"I don't remember Sasori." She said absently looking around the room.

"You remember me though." He prompted her.

"Yes." She smiled, " I remember we met a long time ago, when we were children on the playground."

His heart leaped, yes, it was working.

"Yes, that's right, we have been with one another ever since that fateful day, there has been no one else for you but me." He took her hand.

"Would you like some tea, my dear?" He lifted the teapot invitingly to her.

"Please." She smiled at him. So trustingly.

"Give me just a moment doll, let me change into something more comfortable and I will attend you." He rose from his seat, taking the small vials from the nightstand and placing them on the cart. He wheeled the cart over to the dressing closets and entered without looking back.

Sakura watched him move about the closet, he had left the door open, they must be intimate she thought for him to do such a thing. She frowned, she couldn't remember. She watched as his towel slid from his hips to the floor and she blushed. Her cheeks burned even hotter as he raised his eyes to meet hers, a quirk to his lips. She looked away then, to the floor.

Sasori smirked, she liked what she saw, she was attracted to him. He was going to enjoy this. He had been patient, he deserved this.

"I need you to get your asses into the desert and bring me back my apprentice, Sakura Haruno." Tsunade barked at her two cousins as they stared at her dumbly.

"Why is she in the desert?" Hashirama asked.

"She was kidnapped by a serial killer who hates the Uchiha and is using her to get back at them! Shisui Uchiha contacted me a few hours ago asking for my help with a memory drug, only it isn't a drug at all it is a parasite! My apprentice has been or will be injected with it, I have less than three days to reverse the effects! Now go get her! This is Shisui's number call him, he has all the information you will need. I am going to wait for you on the border between Fire and Wind country, now go!" Tsunade screamed and pushed them out of her office.

Hashirama looked at his brother Tobirama. "The girl we see at the house in your lab all the time?"

"That's Sakura, I didn't know she was mixed up with the Uchiha." Tobirama frowned. "Why should we help an Uchiha?"

"She is not an Uchiha, her childhood friend is. Tsuna told me they took her in after her parents died in a car is Tsuna's apprentice, I remember the girl, she is brilliant, beautiful, but how would someone like her get mixed up with, what did Tsuna say, a serial killer who has a grudge against the Uchiha?"

Tobirama kept scowling, "I know she is like a daughter to Tsuna but still. Can't the Uchiha get her back, why do we need to go." They were still outside of Tsunade's office door.

The door flew open. "This is not about the stupid crime war you have going on with Madara, Hashirama, it is about an innocent, now go get her! I'm leaving here within the hour and will be waiting on the border." She slammed the door shut.

"She is an innocent Tobi." Hashirama looked at his younger brother, "And she is important to Tsuna, let's go. Call your team, have them meet us at the border."

Tobirama sighed, "Fine, but if this turns out bad, I'm blaming you. Whoever heard of the Senju working with the damned Uchiha to get back a pink haired medic." He all but rolled his eyes and flipped his phone open. Sakura, Tobi groaned, why did it have to be Sakura.

Tsunade dialed Shisui's number.

"Listen up Uchiha I am only going to say this once. You have dragged my little aprentice into a fucking shit storm and if she doesn't come out of this in the same mindset she went in, I'm coming for all of you."

"So good of you to call me back." Shisui grinned on the other line and hoped it didn't leak into his voice.

"Cut the crap Uchiha, The Amoeba of Madness, is essentially a cyst, and when it comes into contact with an inviting host, it sprouts tentacle-like pseudopods and turns into a form known as a trophozoite. Once it's transformed, the trophozoite heads straight for the host's central nervous system, following nerve fibers inward in search of the brain where it then proceeds to feed on the brain cells, tissue and anything else it can ruin."

"Holy shit."

"I'm not fucking done! The symptoms start slow, dizziness, incoherence, drowsiness and memory loss. What I want to know is why the fuck you are asking about it and why the fuck is my aprentice in the desert and with who!"

"Akasuna no Sasori."

"Are you fucking kidding me! This is worse than I thought. My cousins Hashirama and Tobirama have gathered a team and are heading to the desert. Tell who ever needs to know. I assume it is Itachi leading the team, I saw the engagement announcement, no doubt it was Madara's doing? You fucking Uchiha I should have kidnapped her myself if only to keep her from getting involved with your cursed family! I thought you would keep her safe!"

"There is more to this than you know, I'm still uncovering how deep this rabbit hole is, no one could have seen this coming, not you, not me, not even Itachi. I will call him and let him know to expect company. Meet me at the border, Hashirama knows the spot, it was his and Madara's meeting place long ago, when they were friends."

The phone went dead and she slammed her phone down on her desk, grabbed her purse and keys then flew out the door.


	12. Chapter 12

Madara met the two teams at the border between Wind and Fire, they would be ready to go at Itachi's signal. He was looking through one of the folders he had grabbed from Sasori's apartment when Shisui pulled up looking grim.

"Anything new?" Madara asked the younger Uchiha.

"Yea, Itachi asked me to call Tsunade Senju about a file we found at Sasori's apartment. It was titled the Amoeba of Madness. Get this, it is a parasite that attacks the brain, it eats your brain away. Tsunade said if Sasori had learned how to control it, it was bad, really bad." Shisui told him.

"It eats your brain? What did she mean control it?" Madara asked him.

"Direct it I'm guessing to different parts of your brain, like the hippocampus, memory. Itachi said something about how he wants to erase her memory."

"So it affects the hippocampus, where events and facts are stored in your brain?" Madara said.

"I don't really know how it works. She is so pissed that Sakura got kidnapped, she blames us" Shisui told him

"We will get her back."

"She called her cousins Madara. They are on their way here as we speak." Shisui informed him reluctantly

"Hashirama. Damn it Shisui! You should have told her not to involve them! This is an Uchiha matter!" Madara was furious.

"You think I didn't try, you think that crazy bat shit woman would listen to a damn thing I said when I had just told her, her apprentice that is like a daughter to her is missing, kidnapped by some art crazy serial killer?" Shisui protested, the last few weeks of stress breaking through in the strain of his voice.

"Look, I know this is an Uchiha matter, I know he is doing this to get back at us as well as getting Sakura, but shouldn't we accept all the help we can get?" Shisui tried to reason with the clan head.

"Yes." Was all that Madara said.

Shisui nodded. He knew they had been rivals, that the Senju and the Uchiha had been at war since the times of their father's father's, but this was Sakura, both families had lost someone precious to them, they could work together this once to get her back.

Shisui pulled out his phone and texted Itachi: Senju reinforcements are on the way. Tsunade called in her cousins to help get Sakura back. She confirmed your worst fears, it is a memory erasing drug.

Itachi pulled out his phone. "Shit."

He had been hoping he was wrong, but as usual, he was right. The Senju huh? He would take whatever help he could, this was no time to argue over ancient feuds, he had never liked that the clans had been at war for so long anyway.

They had a days trek ahead of them, Madara had let him know the two back up teams were waiting for his signal at the border, the Senju would be there soon with their own special team. He was looking forward to seeing Tobirama again the white haired asshole.

A grin broke out on Itachi's face. Yeah, Tobirama was a real asshole, but his team, like Itachi's, never failed. If only they could get over this hate, the Uchiha and the Senju would make great allies.

Tsunade threw her purse down on the lab table in the Senju mansion. She had to make a restorative for the amoeba. New neurons, brain cells, develop in the hippocampus, the brain region responsible for learning information, storing long-term memories, and regulating emotions, the very part of the brain she knew Sasori was attacking inside of Sakura.

She needed Glial cells. Glial cells protect neurons from further injury. If she could get the formula to Sakura quickly enough she could stop Sasori's memory loss drug. Tsunade just happened to have 7 months worth of Glial cells available to her. She had been requested by Konoha University to join a select study and research group to bring Glial cells into production. For her own private research, she had taken a sample home and had been cultivating her own supply of the cells.

Tsunade quickly grabbed syringes, plungers and sterile bottles throwing them into her medic bag, along with alcohol, gauze, and her base solution. Carefully she lifted each cultivated vial from it's holding frame and inserted them into a form-fitting case. She ran to the door grabbing her bag, phone, and keys, taking the metal foam casing from the table and ran out the door.

Once the case and her bag were in the car she pulled out her phone and texted Shisui: I have the cure, I'm on my way to the border.

She added Tobirama and Hashirama to the group text and drove down the road at top speed.

Tobirama followed his brother's truck down the road, his team following him. He didn't see why they had to be there. Itachi Uchiha was heading the main infiltration team after all. He was a genius they said. Tobirama begrudgingly admitted the man's talent for infiltration and assassination. He had never failed a mission and aside from Izuna who was now dead, was Tobirama's greatest rival in the field. He would admit, he admired the man.

Tobirama thought back to the hospital, the look in his cousin's eyes. She had already lost her lover Dan and her little brother, did she have to lose her apprentice who was more like a daughter to her also? No, he and Hashirama would make sure to get Sakura back for her. He had seen the news. Sasori of the Red Sand was a psychopath, if he was the one to kill these girls...he would help, this wasn't the time to hold grudges clan war or not. Like Hashirama had said. Sakura was an innocent.

Sasori dressed slowly so she could watch him. He felt her eyes on him as he buttoned up his shirt and looked over to the bed. She quickly looked away like she had when his towel had dropped to the floor. He smiled slowly at the blush staining her cheeks.

He had never met someone so transparent. You could tell every thought, every feeling just by looking at her. She was so beautiful and now she was his. It was time.

Walking to the tea cart he took the clear vial from under the napkin and emptied it into her cup. He poured the tea halfway and added the mild tranquilizer. He pocketed the final dose of his memory erasing amoeba and wheeled the cart over to where she still sat on the bed.

"Sorry to have kept you waiting my dear."

Sasori poured his own cup of tea and handed hers to her before taking a sip. She took it with a smile and sipped. They sat together in companionable silence before she looked up at him to ask how they had gotten married.

"We were married here at the house, a private ceremony." He took her hand in his and stroked it while she drank her tea.

Sakura frowned, that seems like something she ought to have remembered. Fragmented thoughts clouded her head. She remembered being engaged and looking at wedding dresses.

"Is something wrong Sakura?" Sasori looked at her in mock concern.

"No, I'm sorry, I just don't remember our wedding. I remember our engagement was sudden though, was it?"

"Very my dear. You see, we hadn't seen one another for a very long time since we were children. I kept a close watch on you, always making sure you were safe, from a distance. My work did not allow me to have such close...connections. We were reacquainted in college, you remember the art class together don't you?" He stroked her hand as they talked.

"Yes!" She exclaimed finally remembering something that made sense to her. "I remember." She smiled at him and squeezed his hand.

"Yes, we shared an art class together, went on several dates and knew, there was no one else for either of us. We were engaged for two weeks and then married today." He took her now empty cup from her hands and filled it again, adding the last vial to her cup as she pleated the fabric of her dress looking down.

"But, where are my friends, did they come to our wedding, I still feel like I am forgetting something, many things." She took a drink of tea.

Sasori watched her, her limbs were getting heavy he could tell. Her hand shook as she tried to bring her cup to her lips.

"Do not worry my dear, all of your friends were there, Ino, Naruto, Hinata, Kiba, all of them." He had watched her for years and knew all of her friend's names.

A look of relief flooded her face and she smiled at him. "Good." She whispered, her eyes closing.

Sasori took the cup from her hands and set it on the tray with his. She could finish it later, she had more than enough in her system.

"Sakura, wake up doll. I want to show you how much I love you."

He ran the back of his hand over her bodice making her shiver.

Fugaku watched as the last box left the studio. He and Madara had decided the best thing to do was to take everything back to the old compound where it could be controlled. The neighbors and already seen too much. Fugaku was surprised a news crew hadn't come by with a camera and a nosey reporter yet.

"That's everything, Sir." An officer addressed him as he stood in the middle of the now empty studio apartment.

"Let's get back to Konoha." Fugaku pulled his phone out to update Madara and get an update from the border.

Madara flipped his phone open on the first ring. "Ah, good, thanks for letting me know. Yeah, they are here. The Senju are coming. Tsunade sent them to help get Sakura back. Yeah, her apprentice. Shisui says she is more like a daughter to her than, yeah I know. I'll let you know if anything comes up, yeah Itachi knows. Were just waiting for his call."

Madara flipped his phone shut as the trucks pulled up.

Hashirama saw Madara flip his phone shut as they drove up. How nostalgic, he hadn't been here since they were friends, years ago, when they were just teenagers.

"It's been a while, Madara." Hashirama stepped out of his truck followed by Tobirama and his team.

The Uchiha had seen the trucks coming and stood gathered behind Madara.

"So it has." Madara crossed his arms over his chest and stood tall.

"We have found a common ground, it seems." Hashirama continued.

"So it seems," Madara replied.

"Leave it to a pink haired, green eyed, medical prodigy who paints on the weekends to catch the eye of an international criminal with stalker and serial killer tendencies, and get herself kidnapped out of a wedding dress shop." Shisui grinned at everyone.

Hashirama's mouth quirked right before he burst out laughing. "Tsuna said she was quite talented."

Madara reluctantly joined him shortly after. Tobirama just grimaced.

"Yes, well, she had guards, he is just that good. Itachi will get her back though, I'm sure." Madara spoke proudly of his nephew.

"I am sure he will, and we are here to help make sure he has all the backup he needs." Hashirama turned to his brother who stepped forward.

"Last known location?" Tobirama had his arms folded across his chest like Madara.

"See for yourself." Madara threw Tobirama the GPS tracker.

"Hum." The white haired man studied the map on the little screen. "Smart, he is closing in from the east, clever prick." He said with a small smirk of his own that matched Madara's.

"We will head out." He made a hand sign to his team who sprang into action grabbing gear and strapping on equipment.

"We will come from the West. Once we get into the sand we will be out of radio, tell Itachi via satellite phone."

He turned to his team, " We leave in 10, be ready!". And went to strap on his own gear.

Sasori ran a lazy hand over Sakura's arm as she hummed in her drowsy state of mind. He had given her a tranquilizer to relax her and slow her reflexes. Her memories were scrambled enough with the doses he had given her to mix real memories with fragmental ones to sate her clever mind. He knew if he lied to her without a basis of truth, she would start to question him too much and he couldn't have that.

"I fell in love with you that day, before I even knew what love was, at the park." Sasori talked as he pet her.

"Sasori." She mewled and leaned into his touch.

Sasori smiled, finally.

"I kept it, the pieces of your sweater you used to bandage up my leg. I kept everything. Notes, pictures, your artwork. You mean more to me than you know, my doll." He crawled over her onto the bed hugging her to his side, her head resting against his chest.

Sakura turned toward his touch putting her arm over his waist, snuggling up to him.

"When you were 12 you went to the movies with the Yamanaka girl, I was there in the back row, watching over you. I remember how cute you were, so self conscious, so shy. You have always been adorable." He leaned down placing his fingers gently under her chin, lifting her mouth to meet his.

"So beautiful Sakura." He said against her lips as he kissed her.

Sakura ran her hand up his chest and started unbuttoning his shirt, she wanted to feel his skin against hers. She flicked her tongue out into his mouth and he pressed down harder over her mouth, heart racing.

Sasuke rubbed his temples with his fingers, how long had it been since he had first gotten there a day, two? He wasn't sure. What he had told Sasori wasn't a lie, Itachi would be coming and soon. Sasuke knew his brother, he knew his family, he had complete faith in them getting out of this alive, he was only worried how long it would take and what damage Sasori would do to Sakura till they could get here.

A squeaking noise could be heard over head and Sasuke looked up to see a small lift platform being lowered slowly from above. The solid metal plate on the bottom and the angle did not allow Sasuke to see what or who was on the platform. He tried to get up off the chair once more but found his body wouldn't co-operate, he still had trouble moving, so he sat, and waited.

Soon the white haired man could be seen looking over the side of the rail on the small platform watching him as he was lowered down. Sasuke scowled recognizing Kabuto as the asshole who had kidnapped them in the first place and tied him to a chair, and injected him with whatever the hell he had injected him with.

Kabuto stepped off the platform as it touched the floor and regarded Sasuke with an odd look. Sasuke glared back at him.

"So arrogant, such a face." Kabuto teased as he regarded Sasuke one hand on his hip, the other on his chin.

"I wonder what other kinds of faces I can get you to make for me." Kabuto stepped forward and ran his hand through Sasuke's hair tugging a little as his fingers tangled at the ends.

Sasuke jerked back in disgust.

Kabuto laughed, grabbed Sasuke by the back of the neck, leaned down and kissed him hard. Sasuke tried to pull back, lift his fist to hit the man but his body wouldn't move, wouldn't let him.

"You can't fight back, I gave you a special injection of my own design. The body is helpless but the mind remains clear. I want you to know what I am doing to you, unlike Sasori and that woman, you will know every touch, every feeling for what it really is. Forced."

Kabuto kneels down in front of Sasuke and started to undo his pants. "Just enjoy it, like you enjoyed fucking that pink haired girl when she was drugged."

"You sick fuck, that was different." Sasuke spit in his face.

"Hum. I have better uses for that pretty mouth of yours but for now." He pulled out a ball gag and gagged Sasuke.

Kneeling down in front of Sasuke once more he took his cock in his mouth and stroked it with his tongue. Sasuke grunted behind his gag, eyes wide with disgust as his cock began to harden under Kabuto's attentions.

"You like it don't you?" Kabuto asked looking up at Sasuke his mouth around his cock.

Kabuto held Sasuke's hard cock in one hand as he moved it deeper down his throat and unbuttoned his own pants freeing his hardened member, stroking it with his free hand.

Sasuke tried but he couldn't move. Anger flooded his chest at his humiliation and he closed his eyes, trying very hard to ignore the sensations Kabuto was arousing in him.

He opened his eyes when he felt Kabuto pull away from him to find a tiny vial of clear liquid being pressed against his lips as Kabuto removed his gag.

"Drink this." Kabuto smiled at him upending the vial into his mouth, pinching his nose and covering his mouth. He swallowed.

"The muscle relaxer I gave you will start to wear off soon, then we can have some real fun." Kabuto rubbed the tip of his cock against Sasuke's lips coating them with a drop of his precum.

To Sasuke's horror, his tongue flicked out and licked it bringing a flush of heat to his cheeks.

"Suck it." Kabuto pushed his cock past Sasuke's lips and into his wet mouth.

Sasuke closed his eyes and tried to think of anything else but Kabuto wouldn't let him, he kept talking.

"Do you like that Sasuke, can you feel it in your mouth, my cock, can you taste it on your tongue? I'm going to cum in your mouth and make you cum in my hand." Kabuto reached down to Sasuke's stiff cock and rubbed it with his free hand, pumping it slowly, tauntingly. Sasuke grunted in pleasure to his extreme disgust and hummed around Kabuto cock.

"I can see it in your lovely eyes, you like it when I touch you, don't you?" Kabuto leaned his hips into Sasuke's face choking him with his cock.

Kabuto began pumping into his mouth harder and faster, the back of his throat tore in pain. Kabuto dropped both of his hands to Sasuke's head bucking up against his lips. "Unnnnhh." Cum shot out of his cock down Sasuke's throat. Instead of pulling back, Kabuto bucked into his face a few more times holding his head to his crotch.

"How selfish of me, I didn't help you finish." He said as he tucked his now limp penis back into his pants.

"Maybe later." Kabuto did Sasuke's pants up for him again and stepped back onto the metal platform hitting the control button.

"Itachi, the Sat phone is ringing." Kisame threw the phone to Itachi.

"What is it, this is not a secure line?" Itachi said.

"They have arrived and will be closing in on your opposite side. They have your cords on GPS and are moving fast. Our two teams are assembled and ready at your word." Shisui told his cousin.

"Thank you, we have about 5 more hours before a visual, I'll stay in contact." Itachi threw the phone to Kisame who strapped it back onto his pack.

"I can't wait to blow shit up in this sand, it will really be a true work of art out here!" Deidara smiled as they ran.

"You and your fuckin art man, all it is, is blowing shit up, I'm okay with that don't get me wrong but it isn't fucking art. Art hangs on your wall or some shit." Hidan taunts Deidara to pass the time.

"Man, fuck you, why do you always do this shit, you know my art is more than just an explosion yeah!" Deidara huffs.

"Silence, focus." Itachi shuts them down. Five hours, then we can see what we're really up against. I'm coming Sakura, please be safe.


	13. Chapter 13

Sakura looked up into Sasori's eyes as she ran her hands over his chest. His long fingers pulled and twisted lose the buttons down the side of her dress.

"Sakra, I have waited for this for so long. I love you." Sasori whispered into her neck as he slid his fingers under the now open bodice across the mounds of her breasts.

"So soft Sakura, you are truly beautiful my dear."

Sakura spreads apart the folds of his now open shirt, turning to him so she can slide the garment off his shoulders.

He, in turn, peels back the sheer sequined bodice to reveal her breasts and pushes the dress down over her stomach and hips. He kicks the dress off the bed and it falls to the floor in a soft whoosh of silk and fluff.

Her fingers drop to his pants and he helps her undo the belt, unzip and push his pants to the floor beside her dress.

"Sasori." She hums as he lifts her up, laying her down beside him.

Not content to stay on her back she turns onto hers reaching out to embrace him. Kissing her softly, his hands trailing down the length of her body over her thigh he reaches round and pulls one leg up and over his waist, leaving the space between her legs open for his attentions.

Two fingers trace a lazy trail on his inner thigh pulling sweet moaning noises from her lips. Slowly he rubs her entrance, wet with her arousal. She takes her lower lip between her teeth as he slid two fingers up into her heat. Her body twitches and moves against him, her eyes closed as she sucks breaths in quick and erratic.

Curling his fingers up against the smooth silk of her walls he bites down on her neck gently. Her hands come up and tangled in his hair as she moves against his hand begging him with her body to touch her more.

"I can't wait any longer." He pulled her leg up roughly higher around his waist, leaning into her, moving her onto her back he raises his top half off of her, lining himself up with her entrance.

"Sakura, look at me." He coaxes her to meet his eyes.

She opened her eyes and smiles at him.

"That's my girl." Slowly he pushes his cock up and into her, her eyes flutter shut and she bites down hard on her bottom lip.

"Sakura, love, I want you to look at me, I want to see your eyes" he pulls out of her, he waits, she opens her eyes and he pushes back into her groaning out his pleasure.

He drops her leg and moves higher up taking her hands in his and pinning them above her head." Wrap your legs around my waist." he commands.

Sakura nods and wraps her legs around his waist mewling and wiggling her ass. Sasori grits his teeth trying to maintain control, he bucks into her hard making her back arch off the bed.

"Again." She moans.

"3 hours from visual, keep your eyes open for scouts!" Itachi calls to his team.

Baki scans the sand with a veteran's eye. Four small specks catch his attention moving fast across the sand to the East.

"I need eyes!" Baki shouts and binoculars are placed in his hand by his aid.

"Shit!" He turns to his team," We've got incoming! Let's welcome them to Suna!"

"Yes, Sir!" his team choruses back as they head out to meet Itachi and his team.

"Madara, Itachi has visual, they are engaging, he says it is Baki. They must be close then."

Shisui drops the sat phone back in his pack turning to the rest of the group before him.

"Time for you to go then, lead the two teams and come in from the south. That will leave the north open but it can't be helped." Madara said.

"Keep checking your GPS, don't get turned around, maintain position, the others will see you on the map. No communication from here on out." Hashirama added and Madara nodded.

Shisui grinned and turned to the two teams waiting for his orders, strapping his wakizashi next to his rifle on his back as he yelled. "You heard the man! Let's go!"

"Don't think you're leaving without me!" Tsunade Senju pulled her car up throwing it into park and jumping out grabbing bag and case from her back seat and running up to Shisui.

"I wouldn't dream of it." He winked at her.

"Cut the crap Uchiha let's get going, I want my apprentice back." She throws on a pair of her own goggles and glares at him pointedly.

"You heard the lady!" Shisui grinned at her one last time before running toward the sand followed by Tsunade and his teams.

Baki met Itachi head on with a roar. Itachi's K-Bar ripped open the older man's chest without hesitation, he moved to the next man in line tripping him neatly, bending and slitting his throat. By the time he rose, the rest of the Sand scouts had been taken down by his team.

"Forward." Itachi wiped the blood from his knife using the front of Baki's uniform.

Sasori took a deep breath as he lay next to Sakura in their bed. Her small body draped over his slightly larger one like a curtain. She was sound asleep, her mouth slightly open, small wisps of hair floating at the edge of her face.

He closed his eyes and took another deep breath. So, this is what it's like to feel happy, he thought to himself as he drifted off to sleep.

Tobirama looked down at the GPS in his hand. Itachi's team had barely stopped, to eliminate the seasoned Sand ops team before moving on to their main focus. Tobirama had expected nothing less from Itachi but was still impressed.

"Pick up the pace! The Uchiha brat has already taken out Baki and his team, we don't want to look bad now do we?" His team roared their displeasure at the thought and they pushed on.

"I heard you were really something back in your day in the service Tsunade, they called you the Slug Queen. I heard you could really lay a guy out, with one hit no less." Shisui winked at her as they ran over the sand.

"You wanna find out?" Tsunade gave him a hard look ignoring the snickering Uchiha behind her.

"I'd let you lay me out anyday, you name it gorgeous." Shisui grinned at her.

"How bout' this, if we get Sakura back, I'll buy you a drink." Tsunade grinned back at him.

"You got it, and don't worry, I want her back just as much as you do, although, none of us want her back as much as Itachi." He picked up the pace racing over the sand effortlessly.

Sasori didn't know what woke him, but wake he did, with a bad feeling. Reluctantly he removed himself from Sakura's embrace, grabbed his pants and phone as he slipped out of their room and headed for his study dialing Baki.

No answer.

He hit the buttons on his remote to bring up his security cameras for tower one by the scouting post. He saw the small image of the scout team lying in a bloody mess in the sand. He clenched his fist and brought it down hard on his desk. He had underestimated Itachi.

He picked up the In-House phone and called the other two watchtowers.

"Baki's team is dead, set the traps, shoot to kill. I don't need any more prisoners for Kabuto to torture. Send out teams 3 and 5 to the East gate and team 4 and 6 to the West."

Sasori stood there switching in between cameras and frowned. Where was Itachi...

"Incoming!" Hidan yelled as two teams of Sand nin ran at them full speed.

Deidara grabbed the Sand nin by the front of his jacket, pulled him up and over him slamming him to the ground, locking a white sticky patch to his chest.

Boom!

"Fuck yeah!" Deidara cackled as an arm flew by his head.

"Careful fuck head! You almost got me too!" Hidan ran past him taking a nin by the arm with one hand and stabbing him in the chest with the other.

"Focus, there are more coming." Itachi said calmly as he watched another team pop out of the sand and run toward them guns ready.

"Itachi!" Kisame saw the wires at the same time Itachi had.

"I know!" Itachi yelled back and the sand around them exploded. Tripwire, was the second to last thought that ran through his mind, Sakura. Itachi's vision went black, he could hear the screaming of his team as they flew through the air around him.

"Change of plans! We're moving to Itachi's last known position!" Shisui yells over his shoulder.

"What's wrong?" Tsunade yells over the wind as they change course.

"They stopped, Itachi never stays in one place during an infiltration and retrieval mission." Shisui's face looks grim.

"Ah." Tsunade grit her teeth. This was bad then.

They came over the last dune at full speed into chaos.

Sand whirled and whipped at their faces and hands as they ran down the dune to meet the remaining Sand ops. Sasori blew up his own men to get to Itachi.

"Itachi!" Shisui called out for his cousin as he dodged heavy fire from the sand ops.

Tsunade was at his side, The Slug Queen, shooting op after op point blank covering Shisui.

"There he is!" Shisui drops down beside Itachi.

"Switch with me Tsunade!" Shisui pulls his rifle from his back and pulling the trigger in one fluid motion.

Tsunade pulls a blade from her jacket cutting away Itachi's shirt under his destroyed vest. "You are one lucky son of a bitch Uchiha."

"I know." Itachi wheezed, blood coming out of the corner of his mouth.

"Let's get you sewn up." Tsunade reaches for her suture kit.

"Well well, as I live and breathe. Never thought I would live to see such a sight. The great Itachi Uchiha down in the field, and a Senju no less, saving his life." Tobirama kneeled down beside them as Tsunade stitched Itachi's wound closed.

"Enjoy the sight while you can you white haired fiend." Itachi's mouth twitched.

"My men." Itachi breathed out in a gasp as Tsunade stuck the needle into his abdomen again.

"They are being cared for, like you. The Sand ops are cleared, we move as soon as you're sewn up kid." Tobirama stood then and motioned to his team.

"Thank you Senju." Shisui bowed to Tsunade and Tobirama.

"Don't thank me, thank her." He motioned to Tsunade. "To be honest, your men took care of most of the Sand ops, you were just finishing up when we arrived." Tobirama smiled for the first time.

"All clear Sir, traps are down." A nameless Senju reported to Tobirama.

"You okay to walk or do you need me to carry you?" Tobirama teased Itachi.

"Ugh." Itachi groaned, he was not in the mood for jokes.

"Yeah yeah, can we just go rescue Sakura already?" Shisui motioned to the two Uchiha teams to follow him and ran toward the distant gates of the Akasuna Mansion.

"Let's go lover boy." Tsunade used her legendary monstrous strength and hauled Itachi to his feet.

"Toka, stay with them, they will be moving a bit slower, I assume. I will take the rest of our team and join Shisui. Stay within local radio." Tobirama and the rest of the team ran in the direction Shisui and the other Uchiha had gone.

Itachi groaned.

"Don't pass out on me now Uchiha." Tsunade growled at him and hoisted him higher up on her shoulder. They moved slowly but firmly toward the gate.

"Fuck!" Sasori pulled his pistol out and shot the surveillance monitor in front of him.

"I was hoping it wouldn't come to this." He turned on his heel, hitting the emergency button on the wall as he left the room.

Kabuto gripped Sasuke's hair pulling his head back as he thrust into him from the back ignoring the red flashing lights.

"Such a good fit Uchiha." He leaned over to bite Sasuke's neck.

Sasuke grunted.

"You like it don't you." Kabuto ground into his ass he began to peak.

Kabuto reached around taking Sasuke's hard cock in his hand stroking it faster and faster as he exploded into his ass.

"I'm not done with you yet." Kabuto licked the sweat off Sasuke's back pushing him down flat onto the ground, as the red light continued to flash in the background.

Sasori walked down the hallway toward the bedroom calling servants to him as he went. "Pack an overnight bag for my lady and put it in the helicopter, radio the pilot, tell him to hurry. We wish to leave immediately."

"Sakura dear, we need to leave. I have a surprise for you." Sasori leans over her pulling her up to a sitting position.

"Sasori?" She opens her sleepy eyes to look at him.

Sasori is struck again by her perfect beauty, but there is no time for that now. "Yes, we need to go dear. I have called the helicopter to take us somewhere special for our honeymoon, let's get you dressed, we leave immediately."

He helps her slide out of their bed and leads her to the dressing room.

"Get dressed quickly doll, I'll be right back." He leaves the room quickly.

"Kabuto, where the hell are you?" Sasori growls stalking toward the basement.

Sakura stood in the dressing room looking through the clothes. She didn't remember any of them, they didn't look like her clothes. They were lovely and beautiful but not familiar. She shook the fuzz from her head as she pulled out a dark purple sundress with white flowers on it. Opening drawer after draw in the dresser she found a matching bra and underwear set and put it on. The light cotton dress slid over her form nicely hugging her curves and making her feel more than a little pretty.

Finding a pair of silver sandals along the bottom of the rows in the closet she slipped them onto her feet listening.

Pop Pop Pop

"Is that gunfire?" She moved slowly to the window thinking that the window is probably not the best idea but she was curious.

Looking down she saw dark haired men moving fast across the rock garden lawn toward the front door and windows. She narrowed her eyes as one of them stops and looks up at her. He cups his hands to his face and yells something but she can't hear him. He grins and waves at her, static fills her head and she staggers backwards away from the window.

"What the hell?" She grabs her head, it has gone fuzzy like little fissures of lightening rocketing around her brain.

"Sakura? Are you alright ?" Sasori walks to her quickly taking her hands in his, a look of concern on his face.

"My head, like lightning, electricity is..." She staggers and falls against him.

"A side effect of your medicine dear, not to worry, it will pass in a few days, come, the helicopter is waiting , we must go." He pulls her along after him as they walked quickly to the door and down the hall. Damn that Kabuto, the man had disappeared.

"Sakura!" Shisui cups his hands together and yells above the gunfire. He sees her looking down at him through the window and marks it's location in his head.

He pulls the sat phone from his pack and calls Itachi, "I got visual on Sakura but lost it, she is alive Itachi, she looked whole. We're going in."

"Team 6 forward! Team 4 to the back!" Shisui turns toward the noise over the sand, "Shit! A chopper! To the chopper! He isn't going to get away!"

Itachi, Tsunade and Toka are slowly making their way down the last dune before the manse.

"Chopper." Toka yells as it flies over them toward the manse.

"Sakura." Itachi wheezes.

"Go Toka, stop them, do whatever you can. The Uchiha and I are right behind you." Tsunade shoves her friend and cousin.

Toka pulls her rifle from her back and runs for the field she is sure the chopper will land.

"Okay Uchiha time for drastic measures." She dumps him unceremoniously on the ground ripping a small pack from her waist and pulling two vials from it with a new syringe.

"What...is...that?" Itachi gets out through the pain in his abdomen. The bleeding hadn't stopped yet and he was getting dizzy.

"Let's just call it, adrenaline." She uncorks the first vial and draws the liquid into the needle tapping out the bubbles as she goes and then plunging it into his neck. She grabs the other vial and does the same thing.

He drops to the ground. "Not yet Uchiha." she pressed a bottle of water to his lips.

"Itachi, call me Itachi." He gasps.

"Whatever, Itachi, if you die, she'll never forgive me." Tsunade rips open a sterile pack of gauze slapping it to his wound and then pulling a wrap from her other pack wrapping it around his waist and upper torso.

"Not...going...to...die ...today." Itachi bit out as she pulled the wrapper tightly and tied it.

"Good, now get up and let's get our girl back." She pulls him to his feet and they walk fast toward the manse.

The skirt of her dress flew up as they ran out to meet the helicopter. Sasori was nearly dragging her along at this point.

"Wait!" She tries to yell over the rush of blades.

"There is no time Sakura, we must go now." Sasori pulls on her arm dragging her forward.

"No, this doesn't seem right, why are we leaving like this, why are we in such a hurry?" She plants her feet firmly on the ground pulling her hand from his.

Sasori stops, his lips tight and flat as he controls his anger. "Sakura, dear, we need to leave, I will explain everything once we are on the helicopter and away. Please." He reaches out for her.

"GET AWAY FROM HER!" Shisui Uchiha breaks through the doors of the manse near the landing pad rifle in hand raising it to Sasori's head.

"STEP BACK FROM HER SCUM!" Shisui takes two steps forward.

Sasori grabs Sakura by the elbow, spins her and brings her up close over his heart, his face tucked into her neck, her body covering his as he looks past her blowing hair to the Uchiha.

"You shoot me, you kill her too." Sasori smiles.

"Sasori, what, what are you doing?" Sakura struggles up against him.

"Not to worry dear, I have this under control, just stay with me, I won't let them hurt you." Sasori whispers into her ear.

She can feel the pistol at his hip digging into her side painful.

Sasori pulls a pistol from his side and points it up under her chin. What? Sakura moans, he had another on the other side?

"I don't want to, but I will kill her to get out of here alive." Sasori yells.

"No you won't, you have stalked her your whole life, tell me another one Akasuna!" Shisui taunts him.

"What?" Sakura tries to turn her head to look at Sasori but she can't.

Shisui sees the look of confusion on her face, "He is a murdered Sakura! He drugged you to wipe your memory! Don't trust him!" He yells.

The rest of his team join him taking position around the helicopter guns pointed at the red headed man.

"Give up Sasori, there's nowhere to go, just release her, we know you won't kill her." Shisui takes another step forward.

"Sakura." Itachi and Tsunade call from the doors.

"Itachi?" Sakura breaths.

Sasori's grip on her tightens, anger washes over him. She remembers him?

Sakura shakes her head trying to subdue the flashes of lightning rocketing around in her brain.

"We need to get her the serum quickly!" Tsunade yells to Shisui, "We are running out of time!"

Serum, damn that Senju, Sasori knew the only person who could reverse or stop the effects of the drug was her but he never thought he would see the day that the Senju would work with the Uchiha.

"You look like shit." Tobirama and his team had arrived.

Itachi ignored him.

Sasori groaned, this was bad. He hadn't accounted for this. He edged closer to the helicopter.

"Don't move!" Itachi yelled out a lot stronger and more forceful than he felt. He felt like he was going to fall over but he stood tall and menacingly.

"Don't be a fool Uchiha." Sasori snarled.

"Sakura, remember the field of flowers, by the old compound, remember?" Itachi asked her calmly rifle aimed at Sasori's head and at the ready.

"I...don't...I'm sorry." She stuttered. She couldn't remember.

"Think Sakura." Itachi continued to speak to her calmly. "You are the most intelligent woman I know, you can remember. Two summers ago, you and I went there together, I bought you tempura and dango and we sat there, in the field in the middle of all the beautiful flowers and then when we were done eating , remember what you did?" He smiled at her.

Realization flew over her face and he breathed in, took his aim, she dropped to the ground, her knees hitting the stone, Sasori gaped at her in concern, Itachi breathed out and took his shot.

It hit Sasori in the heart, he dropped to the ground beside Sakura and she broke into tears. She remembered, after they had eaten lunch she had ran through the field, her hands trailing over the soft petals, then dropped to the ground gathering an armful up to her nose.

"Thank Kami." Itachi lowered his rifle and let it drop to the ground in relief, walking toward Sakura.

"Itachi!" Shisui and Tobirama both shouted at the same time.

Sasori pulled the other pistol from his waist bringing it up to Itachi's face. "Goodbye Uchiha."

"No!" Sakura screamed.

Everything went into slow motion around her.

Tobirama leapt forward with Shisui, Tsunade spun around looking over her shoulder to the roof of the manse, Itachi turned to smile at her, and Sasori pulled the trigger...but not before his head exploded and he dropped to the ground...dead. Sasori, long ago, had surgically moved his heart from one side of his chest to the other, but he couldn't avoid a shot to his head.

"Toka." Tsunade breathed out.

"Better late than never eh?" The Senju woman grinned down at them from the roof of the manse.

Tsunade grabbed her case and ran to Sakura pulling the lid open. She pulled the waiting pre-prepped injects out and thrust the first into Sakura's arm.

Sakura looked up to her Shisou. "Shisou?" Tsunade smiled.

"Sakura." Itachi moved to her pulling her to him and burying his head in her hair.

"Ita...Itachi?' She got out through the tears.

"Yes, I'm sorry it took me so long. Forgive me please." Itachi cried into her hair.

Sparks exploded in her brain and she slumped forward, he grunted slightly under the extra weight, he could feel the blood soaking into her dress from his wound but didn't care.

Shisui and Tobirama stood over the now headless body of Akasuna no Sasori looking down.

"Where's Sasuke?" Shisui looked around.

Itachi lifted his head. "Find him."

Two weeks later back at the Uchiha compound in Konoha…

Sasuke woke up in a cold sweat. He could still feel that bastards cold hands on his cock. He leaned over his bed and threw up.

Shisui had found them in a secret room in the basement of the Akasuna Mansion. Kabuto was too occupied pounding into Sasuke's ass to notice the older Uchiha. Sasuke woke up a day later in their compound, his mother holding his hand.

He hadn't made it out of bed that time either before he had thrown up.

Sakura sat on the back porch with Itachi looking out into the open field behind the main house. Obito leaned against the porch rail far off the right knife in hand whittling a block of wood into chess pieces.

"Are you ready to go back Sakura? I'm sure Tsunade will understand if you want to take this semester off." Itachi asked her gently, his leg brushing up against hers.

Sakura smiled, "No she won't. She would smack me and tell me to get back on the horse."

A small smile graced Itachi's lips. "You're probably right."

Two years later…

"Congratulations Sakura, we are so proud of you!" Hashirama hugged her then Madara.

She hadn't recovered all of her memories. Madara watched her smile and hug her friends and family. What would she do if she remembered what their family did...did it matter?

"Thank you, I couldn't have done it without all of you." She smiled at all of her friends and family gathered around her smiling at her success.

"Are you sure you're ready?" Itachi smiled down at her.

"I'm ready Itachi." She smiled up at him raising onto her toes to give him a kiss.

"Well, let's get going if we want to make those dinner reservations" Mikoto pulled at them. "You only have what two hours before you leave for your honeymoon!"

Sakura smiled at Itachi who looked down at her returning her smile.

"Shall we Mrs. Dr. Uchiha?" Itachi grinned at her and held open the door to the limo that had just pulled up.

"I can't wait." She climbed into the car, turned and pulled him in after her by his lapel.


End file.
